Report prompts scrutiny of Las Vegas Sands Corp. by gaming regulators
The state Gaming Control Board confirmed Wednesday that it has made inquiries about a published report that casinos operated by Las Vegas Sands Corp. allowed high-stakes Chinese players to bet millions of dollars using other people’s names.
“We’re just trying to find out what it’s all about and gather all the evidence and facts that we can,” Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett said in response to a Reuters report that said the company recruited women to serve as shills for gamblers to eliminate a paper trail leading back to the gamblers, which attorneys for the women say is a possible violation of money-laundering statutes.
Sands officials have said there is no evidence that anyone from the company asked the women to take out credit in other people’s names. Sands had tried to collect gambling debts from the women.
Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the Control Board has made inquiries related to the matter and “we’ve responded in a timely and transparent manner, as we always do.”
Burnett stopped short of calling the inquiries an investigation.
“You could say gaming companies are under investigation all the time in one way or another, but it’s not with an assumption that they’ve done something wrong or there’s no criminal type of element to it or anything like that, but that’s our job, 24/7, that’s what we do,” Burnett said. “This is definitely an inquiry.”
He said Control Board agents frequently are in communication with company officials when media reports are published.
The report said the allegations against Sands initially surfaced after Clark County prosecutors brought charges last year against two women accused of failing to repay millions of dollars in gambling debts at The Venetian and Palazzo casinos. The charges eventually were dropped.
The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
