Thursday, July 10, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ADVANTAGE GAMBLING: Official requests 'guidance'

Casinos' use of force at issue

A Nevada Gaming Control Board member is asking the attorney general for "guidance" about the limitations on the use of force by casino security personnel and the legal rights of advantage gamblers.

Bobby Siller, the Gaming Control Board member responsible for enforcement of the state's gaming regulations, recently asked the attorney general's office "to bring him up to speed" on state laws dealing with advantage gambling -- where players are able to gain an edge in casino games by employing legal means such as card counting or taking advantage of mistakes made by dealers or other casino employees.

Although the Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that advantage gambling -- including such techniques as card counting, shuffle tracking and playing slot machines that are paying out more than their fair share -- is legal, several Nevada lawyers say there is a pattern of casino security personnel and state gaming control officers using intimidation and excessive force to deter advantage gamblers from playing at local properties.

In a Sunday story, the Review-Journal reported on a string of cases in which advantage gamblers say they were illegally detained, questioned and abused by casino security guards and control board agents and even charged with unrelated minor crimes after being caught using advantage gambling techniques in Las Vegas casinos.

Siller Tuesday argued there is "nothing new" about this treatment of advantage gamblers, and said the Gaming Control Board will not take up the issue despite his request for guidance on the law.

"It's so we can look at what's going on here. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong. I want to be brought up to speed so I can know what their legal rights are," Siller said of his request to the attorney general's office.

Siller said handcuffing advantage gamblers and submitting them to excessive force is not "the norm" in Nevada casinos and called instances in which excessive force is used and their rights are abused "isolated cases."

"As a norm, (advantage players are) not 86'd. Casinos have other options available," Siller said. "To really look at the issue, you have to look at not just isolated instances. I'm very concerned. I would not want the first response to be 86ing or handcuffing them," he said.

Siller's request for a letter opinion on what Nevada's gaming regulations and laws on advantage gambling are and should be has been referred to Mike Wilson, the assistant chief of the gaming division in the attorney general's office.

Wilson, however, said he could not discuss the current laws because Siller instructed him to refer all such questions back to the control board member. He also said he could not comment because of his "lawyer-client" relationship with the Gaming Control Board.

"You have to ask Siller," Wilson said. Siller, however, declined to comment any further on the current regulations pending an opinion from Wilson.

Civil liberties officials who argue that casinos and police officials have been violating individuals' constitutional and civil rights in their zeal to deter advantage gamblers said they found the two officials' refusal to comment further on the state's laws "very disturbing."

"This sort of gamesmanship is very troubling and raises questions about their view of their jobs. They are supposed to be serving the general public," Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "These songs and dances only serve to undermine the credibility of the Gaming Control Board and, indirectly, of the gaming industry itself," Peck said.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, agreed.

"The public has a right to know what the law is. No one can be expected to obey the law if they do not know what it is," he said, adding Wilson's claim of attorney-client privilege seems irrelevant to the situation.

Las Vegas professor and casino gambling expert Bill Thompson added the state government "must have a clear policy that can be reviewed by the courts. This is the state depriving people of their rights. The state is playing the issue off the cuff, and (the law) needs to be cleared up."

Some gaming jurisdictions such as New Jersey keep it simple. Under public accommodations regulations, advantage gamblers cannot be booted out, let alone handcuffed, roughed up or taken into custody.

Some Nevada gaming companies also avoid legal entanglements and issues of individual rights with similarly simple policies.

Spokesmen for Harrah's Entertainment and MGM Mirage, for example, said their companies simply ask advantage gamblers to leave, which Nevada courts have said is within their legal rights.

MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman added, however, "the suggestion that they're just using their brain power is a real oversimplification. They're abusing a system that is set up to reward people for their play. Ultimately, other customers are taken advantage of in the process."

Other casino operators, running the gamut from high-end megaresorts to value properties, have been caught through a bevy of legal cases in Las Vegas in which advantage gamblers have sued casino-hotels, Gaming Control Board agents and police officers after they have had their winnings confiscated, been detained, roughed up by security and police officers and even charged with unrelated minor offenses.

At the ACLU, Peck said "very serious questions have been raised and we would hope they are writing the opinion in all due haste to make sure no one else's rights are trampled."