{"id":898680,"date":"2025-11-24T11:25:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/?p=898680"},"modified":"2025-11-24T11:25:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:25:29","slug":"vegas-regulators-expose-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/vegas-regulators-expose-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas Regulators Expose Themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Was the circus in town last week? Because the Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong> sure put on a clown show. They handed out a nominal, $7.8 million fine to Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> for flouting anti-money laundering laws. The Roman Empire looked the other way for at least five years while illegal bookie Mathew Bowyer<\/strong> (author of the Shohei Ohtani <\/strong>scandal) gambled at Caesars’ casinos. Amazingly, no one seems to have laughed when Caesars CEO Tom Reeg <\/strong>said, \u201cWe never sacrifice compliance for revenue,<\/em>\u201d even though he clearly did. Reeg followed that howler up with, \u201cThere is no customer that\u2019s worth illegitimate profits.<\/em>” Well, there was at least one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Being grateful for small favors, in this instance, the house did not profit from illegal activity. Bowyer’s losses to Caesars were one-third of the amount fined. As fearless reporter Dana Gentry<\/strong> pointed out, Nevada<\/strong>‘s powder-puff penalty to Resorts World Las Vegas<\/strong> for illegal gambling allowed that company to pocket a $14 million profit<\/a>. (We said early on that the fix was in<\/a> vis-a-vis financially imperiled Resorts World and so it would appear.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least NGC member Rosa Solis-Rainey<\/strong> was on the ball when it came to Caesars’ profession that it was shocked\u2014shocked!\u2014to find Bowyer gambling on its turf. \u201cYou had an AML officer who was a senior vice president. The fact that this gentleman was a bookie was brought to his attention in 2019, so that is six years before he was banned by the property.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0That’s six years of, at best, looking the other way. Only when Bowyer became too hot to handle did Caesars drop him like the proverbial bad habit.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Reeg: Shocked, shocked!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

To her further credit, Solis-Rainey wouldn’t support the modest fine, holding out for something genuinely painful. However, neither she nor NGC Chairman Brian Krolicki<\/strong> appeared to have been paying attention. As Gentry observed, they couldn’t tell the difference between Bowyer and co-conspirator Wayne Nix<\/strong>, lumping the two miscreants together. \u201cThis AML wrecking ball by the name of Mathew Boyer continues to wreak havoc on compliance plans down the street,<\/em>\u201d thundered Krolicki, opting for the time-dishonored ‘lone gunman’ theory. “It\u2019s almost numbing that we continue to have this conversation, particularly because of the acts of one individual.<\/em>\u201d The only thing that’s numb would appear to Krolicki’s brain, as the ongoing money-laundering scandal on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> is far more complex than “Bowyer acted alone.” (NGC member George Markantonis<\/strong> also opted for the lone-gunman fantasy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sure is good for the industry’s image if the scandal can be minimized as the work of a rogue-elephant gambler, with Big Gaming just so many innocent bystanders. (At least in the case of Caesars, a few unnamed executives have walked the plank.) In the meantime, the worst offenders are getting off easily. Former Resorts World prexy Scott Sibella<\/strong>? A cushy year of probation<\/a>. Bowyer? 366 days in the big house. And disordered gambler Ippei Mizuhara<\/strong>, the domino who set this scandal in motion? 57 months in prison<\/a>. Don’t tell us there aren’t two systems of justice in the U.S., one for the wealthy and connected, one for everybody else. It’s disgusting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to see a slice<\/strong> of gambling’s storied past? Rent or stream (or buy<\/a>) the movie 5 Against the House<\/em>. It’s a heist picture set in Reno<\/strong>, including extensive shooting in Harold’s Club.<\/strong> There’s plenty of local color of Reno, of the University of Nevada-Reno<\/strong> campus, the Lake Tahoe<\/strong> area … and did we mention Kim Novak<\/strong>? (Hubba, hubba!) The robbery itself is a howler, involving preposterous disguises that wouldn’t fool a child. But for Fifties gambling flavor it’s tough to beat and Brian Keith<\/strong> makes a great psychopath.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Gridiron Grumbles:<\/strong> It’s bad enough that the Las Vegas Raiders<\/strong> are the second-losingest NFL<\/strong> franchise of the 21st century. But yesterday they were humiliated at Allegiant Stadium<\/strong> by the losingest team of all, the Cleveland Browns<\/strong>. The latter took pity on the Silver & Black, allowing them a pity touchdown in garbage time. Worse still, the loss came at the hands of the insufferable Shedeur Sanders<\/strong>, who will probably be impossible to live with now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even had a Pop Warner League<\/strong> mercy rule been in effect, it wasn’t enough to save Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly<\/strong>‘s job, as he got the axe today<\/a>. For that matter, the Pete Carroll <\/strong>experiment looks like an abject failure, especially given his obstinate refusal<\/a> to treat 2025-6 as a rebuilding year. It seemed impossible to move backwards<\/a> from Antonio Pierce<\/strong> but the Raiders have done just that. Worst of all\u2014as was patiently explained to us during Global Gaming Expo<\/strong>\u2014Raiders owner Mark Davis<\/strong>‘ business plan is such that the Raiders could continue to operate at a profit indefinitely … without ever<\/em> fielding a winning team. That being the case, where’s the incentive to succeed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Was the circus in town last week? Because the Nevada Gaming Commission sure put on a clown show. They handed out a nominal, $7.8 million fine to Caesars Entertainment for flouting anti-money laundering laws. The Roman Empire looked the other way for at least five years while illegal bookie Mathew Bowyer (author of the Shohei […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83928,"featured_media":844258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1728],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Caesars-LV.jpg?fit=1512%2C1512&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83928"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":898689,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898680\/revisions\/898689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}