Culinary Union makes endorsements; Bad Boyd!

The bad old days are alive and well at the Fremont Hotel. A patron was illegally detained by security and accused of theft. To make matters worse, hotel security and staff allegedly lied to both the police and Nevada Gaming Control Board about the incident. Boyd Gaming is facing a four-count charge from the NGCB after it came clean about what really went down. In a she-said/she-said incident, a lady slot player was accused by another dame of stealing slot credits, as heinous a crime as you can commit in a casino. Security obviously believed the accuser and pounced upon her rival. They then extorted $202 from the accused player, who they had threatened with jail time.

Said the NGCB, after a lengthy investigation, “Although there were ample avenues available to reconstruct the alleged events, Fremont personnel failed to pursue those avenues. Instead, they performed a cursory, incomplete, and factually flawed investigation, wrongfully concluding that the accused patron had committed the alleged act and was guilty of misdemeanor theft. A proper investigation would have revealed that the claim against the patron was not valid.” Regulators faced a “general reluctance” by Boyd to cooperate, manifesting itself in one-sentence and monosyllabic answers. That won’t go well for Boyd at the hearing.

Speaking of the Fremont and other Downtown casinos, one of our reporters made the rounds of newly reopened casino bars and found the following … “Every place I looked had every other machine disabled. The Boyd properties left chairs with signed warning of no standing-playing-ordering at the empty machines. That will prevent people from getting too close but also provide a way for drunk couples to cause problems.” More specifically, at the California Hotel, “Holo Holo has machines turned on but no service. Sportsbook bar is open and has a designated area for walk-up orders. Sadly the sportbook itself is closed.” At the Fremont, “Main casino bar was open with a designated area for walk-ups.” Over at Terry Caudill‘s Four Queens, “Machines open at both bars. Only one bar was staffed (King’s Bar I think). And yes, it is now $20/point at both bars.” Finally, The D was riding high: “All bars were open, and there was even a bartender flipping cups in the air at 8 a.m. at the Long Bar.”

Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden is $100,000 lighter in the wallet after being fined by the NFL for not wearing a face mask on the sidelines of the Raiders’ underdog win over the New Orleans Saints. (He can afford it.) The newly plump Gruden also ‘fessed up that he had Coronavirus during the offseason. “It wasn’t pleasant. It was reported that I made up that I had the virus and it really ticked me off, because I would never do something like that. But it’s a very serious matter, and obviously I’m sensitive about it. It was a tough deal, that’s for sure, just like everybody else that’s had it,” quoth Chunky, er, Chucky.

BetMGM is $35,000 richer after some overconfident gambler wagered big-time on the underachieving Atlanta Falcons (if you can believe it) to hold a 15-point lead on the Dallas Cowboys. The Falcons, of course, could not and there went 35 dimes. The Dirty Birds also made history, in a bad way. Teams that had scored 39 unanswered points were 440-0 since 1933. Until Sunday.

Jottings: Covid-19 has claimed the life of Four Seasons founding member Tommy DeVito, who died in Las Vegas on Monday night. DeVito was 92 … Stick a fork in that Showboat casino in Atlantic City. ‘Boat captain Bart Blatstein wants to use the space for a beach bar … The Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah is still riling the pampered elite of Martha’s Vineyard. The two sides duked it out in court recently, though little new ground was broken. Basically the government of the island wants to subordinate any proposed tribal casino to existing zoning rules, which the Wampanoag argue is an unprecedented infringement upon their sovereignty … M Resort has been chosen to host the debut of Aristocrat Technologies‘ Star Trek: The Next Generation slot game. Bonus events include “Warp 9 Spins,” “Borg Assimilation Bonus” and “Make It So Scatter Boost.” Engage!