Monday, January 12, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Regulatory diligence

Gaming Control Board does right thing with Golden Nugget purchase

Investors with no criminal record shouldn't be prevented from doing business in Las Vegas merely because of who they choose as their friends, of course.

And in the end, that's not what the Gaming Control Board did Wednesday, as it approved a license for Tim Poster and Tom Breitling, new owners of the downtown Golden Nugget.

But the three-member panel did vote 3-0 to place a one-year limitation on the license, after a two-and-a-half-hour grilling of the young men on their relationship with Rick Rizzolo, owner of the Crazy Horse Too strip club.

Control Board member Bobby Siller, a former FBI special agent in charge of the bureau's Las Vegas operations, said Mr. Rizzolo is the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation and that several people he employs and associates with have organized crime connections. "People such as you, very successful, very young, are considered marks," he lectured Mr. Poster. "People in organized crime try to set you up, to get some of your funds. And I think that's what they were trying to do with you."

The young millionaires, who reaped about $100 million from their 2000 sale of Travelscape.com, purchased the downtown and Laughlin Golden Nugget hotel-casinos for $215 million. Both told the control board they have cut all association with Mr. Rizzolo.

The license limitation recommendation, if approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission at its Jan. 22 meeting, would require the Golden Nugget buyers to appear before regulators one year from now to prove that they're worthy of keeping a gaming license.

Chairman Dennis Neilander said the one-year license limitation is not that unusual, particularly for operators without casino gaming experience, like Mr. Poster and Mr. Breitling. "Overall, these guys are a big plus," Mr. Neilander said, "and a positive for downtown Las Vegas."

Fine. But this is just the kind of serious treatment Nevadans expect of the Gaming Control Board, demonstrating it is far from the rubber-stamp some might assume. Such diligence is vital to protecting the reputation of Nevada gaming, demonstrating why the imprimatur of a Nevada license carries such weight, and why other jurisdictions -- if they're wise -- seek to mirror this state's standards.