As I reported earlier, the Venetian was rather quietly fined a while back for several violations, including the rigging of a contest–a game of chance. I would think this would tend to discredit the legal casino industry in Nevada and would provoke a few license revocations, but it actually only garnered a million-dollar fine.
Well, one employee responsible has been lectured by the Gaming Control Board. From the LV Sun:
Roger Chuen Po Mok, formerly the senior vice president of Asian marketing for The Venetian, acknowledged that what he did was wrong in an emotional appearance before the state Gaming Control Board. Flanked by attorney Bill Curran, Mok — identified publicly for his role in the incident for the first time — said he schemed to rig drawings for prizes out of loyalty to his employer and his desire to please a good customer.
Mok and three others were fired after the scheme was uncovered in 2002. Earlier this year, The Venetian was ordered to pay a $1 million fine after a 12-count complaint against the resort was settled.
“Some poor choices were made in being loyal to my employer,” Mok read from a prepared statement.
Regulators never named the employees who were responsible for the rigging of the drawings for a Mercedes-Benz sports utility vehicle and two gambling chips, valued at $20,000 and $10,000, during a 2002 Chinese New Year celebration.
Mok said he rigged the drawing because a high-roller he was hosting lost $5 million gambling and the employee “didn’t want to see him go home empty-handed.”
But that’s not all. Mok was also rapped for trying to cover up:
“What you did not only discredited you, but it discredited the state of Nevada,” said board Chairman Dennis Neilander.
Board member Bobby Siller said while the scheme to rig the drawing was a major judgment error, Mok worsened it by lying to state gaming investigators summoned by The Venetian. Siller compared the additional damage inflicted by attempting to cover up the scheme with the trouble former President Richard Nixon brought upon himself during the Watergate burglary investigation.
“You are now living with the consequences of your actions,” Siller said. “There were consequences to your employer, which had to pay a severe fine, and there were consequences to your co-workers, who were fired along with you.”
Venetian contest rigger lectured by regulatorsLet me put this into personal perspective. When I worked in a casino doing security, I was in mortal dread of having my license revoked, which could have happened for virutally anything, it seemed. To this day, if I am walking in a casino and I see a quarter on the ground, I will not pick it up, because if I had been seen doing so as an employee I would have been immediately fired and had my license yanked.
Gaming violations are very serious, because they threaten the integrity of the business. If the games of chance aren’t really run by chance, why bother playing?
I didn’t read anywhere in the article that investigators had conclusively proved that Mok was alone planning and executing the contest-rigging scheme. The phrase that bothers me is: “he schemed to rig drawings for prizes out of loyalty to his employer.” Does that mean that someone higher up asked him to do so?
We may never know the complete story, but this telling of it seems a bit…incomplete.
Misguided loyalty?
Merger update
Here’s a great capsule summary of the Harrah’s/Caesars merger proposal, and a breakdown of Harrah’s Caesars, MGM MIRAGE, and Mandalay Resort group, from Yahoo Finance:
Casino operator Harrah’s Entertainment is close to buying bigger rival Caesars Entertainment in a $10 billion deal that would form the world’s largest casino empire with $8.8 billion in annual revenue and as many as 54 casinos.The merger would be the gambling industry’s second major takeover in a month – MGM Mirage last month agreed to buy Mandalay Resort Group for $4.8 billion plus debt.
A list of properties owned by and select financial information on all four companies follows:
PROPERTIES AND BRANDS:
CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT INC.: Operates 28 properties in five countries and 26,000 hotel rooms. Brands include Caesars, Bally’s, Paris, Hilton, Flamingo and Grand Casinos. Properties include Bally’s, Caesar’s Palace, Flamingo and Paris Las Vegas in Las Vegas.
Atlantic City properties include Atlantic City Hilton, Bally’s Atlantic City and Caesar’s Atlantic City. Also operates properties in New Orleans, Mississippi, Indiana.
International locations include South Africa, Australia, Uruguay and Canada.
HARRAH’S ENTERTAINNMENT INC.: Operates 26 casinos in 13 states. Brands include Harrah’s, Harveys, Rio and Showboat. Properties include Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, Harveys Lake Tahoe, Harrah’s Reno, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and Harrah’s Laughlin in Nevada.
Also operates properties in California, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi, North Carolina and New Jersey.
MANDALAY RESORT GROUP: Owns and operates Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, Circus Circus and Slots-A-Fun in Las Vegas. Other Nevada properties include Circus Circus in Reno, Colorado Belle and Edgewater in Laughlin, Gold Strike and Nevada Landing in Jean and Railroad Pass in Henderson.
– Owns and operates Gold Strike, a casino in Tunica County, Mississippi.
– Owns 50 percent stakes in Silver Legacy in Reno, and Grand Victoria, a riverboat in Elgin, Illinois, and Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. Monte Carlo is jointly owned with MGM Mirage.
– Owns 53.5 percent stake in MotorCity casino in Detroit.
MGM MIRAGE: Owns and operates 12 casinos in Nevada, Mississippi, Michigan and Australia, and has stakes in two other casino resorts in Nevada and New Jersey.
– Owns the Bellagio, MGM Grand Las Vegas, Mirage, Treasure Island, New York-New York and Boardwalk casinos as well as 50 percent of the Monte Carlo on the Las Vegas Strip.
– Owns three golf courses as well as Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo Bill’s and Primm Valley Resort in Nevada, Beau Rivage in Mississippi, and MGM Grand Detroit casinos.
– Owns a 50 percent stake in the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey and a 25 percent stake in Triangle Casino, a local casino in Bristol, United Kingdom.
EMPLOYEES:
CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT has 52,000 employees.
HARRAHS ENTERTAINMENT has nearly 48,000 employees.
MANDALAY RESORT and its consolidated subsidiaries together employed about 28,000 people as of January 31.
MGM MIRAGE has more than 45,000 employees.
REVENUES, NET INCOME:
CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT: For the year ended Dec. 31, 2003, it reported revenue of $4.46 billion and net income of $46 million.
HARRAH’S ENTERTAINMENT: For the year ended Dec. 31, 2003, it reported revenue of $4.32 billion and net income of $292.6 million.
MANDALAY RESORT: For the year ended Jan. 31, it reported revenue of $2.49 billion and net income of $149.8 million.
MGM MIRAGE: For the year ending Dec. 31, 2003, it reported net revenue of $3.91 billion and net income of $243.7 million.
There are the numbers. Both boards have approved the merger.
This deal was not unforeseen, and I think that the only place where there will be real issues will be in New Jersey, and Harrah’s can probably avoid undue concentration there by selling the Hilton. After all, Donald Trump briefly owned four casinos, so there is a precedent for it.
For more information, see the New York Times or Bloomberg.com.
