In what would seem to be a pretty clear-cut case of regulatory overreach, justified as usual by the War on Terror [sic], the 
Department of Justice and the FDIC are targeting the casino industry. They don’t just want to know that casino monies are properly accounted for, they want to know how John Q. Player got the money with which he’s gambling. Casinos aren’t set up to act as investigative bodies and it’s an unconscionable intrusion all the same. It’s not Operation Choke Point so much as Operation Choke Hold.
Opines Brian J. Wise, “banks will see the risk of doing business with casinos and the cost of compliance too high, no matter how large their revenue line, and will end banking relationships, Automatic Clearing House processing and wire transfers. The second outcome is that banks will require casinos to deliver them detailed customer information and operational audits.”
Let’s face it, some casinos probably don’t want to know where their players’ money is coming from. But … the casino industry is not only being stigmatized, it sees the door forced open to allow federal regulation of what is a state-by-state industry. Operation Choke Point is a very bad idea and should be quashed at the first opportunity.
* It’s not often that you see a casino operator stripped of their license in Nevada. Then again, few are as inept as Verlie May Doing of the Searchlight Nugget Casino. Despite repeated screwups, the Nevada Gaming Control Board gave Doing three opportunities to clean up her act and she still couldn’t do it. Doing ‘fessed up to seven counts of improperly handling and recording slot revenue.
Among the charges against Ms. Doing was that she was performing all the duties of a slot operator — drops, fills, etc. — despite not being licensed to do so. She left the count room door wide open and her accounting was literally not to be believed. Last December’s machine reports were more than $5,000 off what Doing’s ledgers showed. (Some basic math might have come in handy.) Although Doing was ordered to employ a slot-machine manager, she didn’t do that either.
Doing’s got until Dec. 31, 2015 — longer if she can sell her casino — to surrender her license, although one shudders to think what ineptitude will hold sway in the meantime. Verlie May Doing isn’t a ‘bad actor’ in the Nevada gaming industry … just an incompetent one.
