Monday, December 23, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Work card data

Privacy issues don't seem to be much of a concern to the state Gaming Commission, which last week approved new work card regulations that give the police carte blanche to do as they please with the information collected.

The entire work card concept -- under which those seeking to work in gaming establishments must receive permission from government officials to obtain a job -- is constitutionally dubious in the first place, but that's an issue for another day.

The new rules streamline the process by allowing employees to obtain a single work card good anywhere in the state. Previously, workers had to get a new card any time they moved from one city to another.

But the Gaming Commission also voted to create a database of all the information gathered during background checks on potential workers. That database will be available to law enforcement agencies, with virtually no restrictions on its use.

The Nevada chapter of the ACLU has raised objections to this, and rightfully so. Precisely why is it necessary to catalog all this information once it has been determined that a worker is fit to be employed in the gaming industry?

Gaming Commission Chairman Peter Bernhard argues that the regulations strike "an adequate balance" when it comes to privacy because the rules states that "information contained within the system ... is confidential and must not be disclosed except in the necessary and proper administration of the Gaming Control Act."

But that can essentially be summed up in two words: Trust us.

In reality, the regulation lacks any serious safeguards to ensure the information collected isn't abused. At the very least there ought to be a limit on how long the information may be stored before it must be purged.

Those are issues the Legislature should address when it convenes in Carson City next year.