Laughlin resort’s parent company settles sexual harassment lawsuit
The owner of the Laughlin River Lodge casino-hotel will pay $1.2 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in 2023 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal government agency announced Tuesday.
Las Vegas-based Nevada Restaurant Services Inc., which also owns the Dotty’s, Bourbon Street and Red Dragon chains of casinos and sports bars, also agreed to post a notice of the settlement and agreed to implement additional measures to deter and respond to incidents of sexual harassment.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, since at least 2018, male and female employees of Nevada Restaurant Services were subjected to both verbal and physical sexual harassment by co-workers and supervisors. The EEOC alleged the company knew of the harassment and failed to effectively address complaints, generating adverse working conditions in which some employees felt they had no choice but to resign.
The settlement stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2023 in U.S. District Court in Nevada by the EEOC alleging “ongoing, unwelcome, severe, and pervasive sexual harassment, and creating and maintaining an offensive, abusive, intimidating and hostile work environment because of sex.”
Court documents said at the Laughlin property, male employees “subjected female employees to unwanted physical sexual advances,” the attempted rape of a 19-year-old employee, groping and “stalking female employees outside the workplace, or trapping them in tight spaces within the workplace such as walk-in refrigerators or locked hotel rooms in order to make unwanted sexual advances.”
The consent decree for the settlement, signed Oct. 14, establishes a process for current and former employees to file claims to share in the distribution of the $1.2 million monetary settlement. Current and former employees who experienced sexual harassment between 2019 to the present may be eligible. Potential claimants may call 213-785-3095 option 5; or email LOSALegalClass5@eeoc.gov for more instructions on how to file a claim.
“We commend Nevada Restaurant Services for their cooperation in the early resolution of this lawsuit and agreeing to implement proactive measures to proactively address sexual harassment and to encourage employees to report harassment,” Anna Park, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Los Angeles district, whose jurisdiction includes Las Vegas, said in a release. “It is imperative that employers take great care to ensure that their workers are protected from sexual harassment by having effective policies and procedures and hold managers and supervisors accountable for worker safety.”
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
