Proliferation of Dotty’s draws attention

Gradually, since the 1980s, Nevada regulators have sought to limit slot and video poker machines -- those outside the big casinos, anyway -- to taverns, convenience stores, groceries, drug and liquor stores.

The statute says "restricted gaming" licenses shall be issued only to those types of enterprises, which may install up to 15 slot or video poker machines per premises, providing such gaming devices are "incidental" to their main business.

Times are tough. Even with the help of slot revenues, some storefront bars and taverns are closing. But one local outfit seems to have come up with a formula that works even in a recession. No sooner do existing establishment close their doors, but -- more and more -- a Dotty's pops up.

There are now scores of them around the valley.

When the first Dotty's appeared on the local scene 15 years ago, according to Station Casinos Executive Vice President Scott Nielson and to Robert Faiss, gaming attorney with Lionel, Sawyer & Collins, the proprietor asserted the joint would be a traditional tavern, with only a minority of its floor space devoted to gambling devices.

But over the years, the pair argue, the Dotty's storefronts have morphed into nothing more than "slot arcades." Left far behind is the notion that gambling would be only "incidental" to the "main business" of such operations.

It's profitable -- which is why Dotty's has now drawn clones including "Molly's" -- but it's illegal, the critics charge. Dotty's was even placed on probation back in 2004, reports Mr. Faiss, at which point they agreed to change their name from "Dotty's Gaming and Spirits" to "Dotty's Food & Spirits."

Dotty's defenders might certainly ask to what extent slot machine revenues are truly "incidental," even to outfits that everyone can agree are traditional taverns with full-fledged kitchens, bartenders and waitresses. How many local bars would close if denied their slot machines?

Still, calling slot operations in a Dotty's "incidental" doesn't pass the smell test. A clearer definition of "incidental" is needed, and it's within the power of the Gaming Control Board to issue one. The board also has enforcement agents who could start investigating how their slot operations remain "incidental" to their main business of tavern operation, as they claimed in their license applications.

The question is how to again make sure everyone plays by the same rules, without driving more existing, taxpaying employers out of business with arbitrary demands that they employ three bartenders per shift, or serve a hundred hamburgers a day in a 50-seat restaurant, or whatever.

Such arbitrary demands could force the closure of hundreds of local taverns, Bill Curran, a former regulator representing the Nevada Tavern Owners Association, told a Gaming Control Board workshop last month.

It's traditional -- and sensible -- for the County Commission to defer to gaming regulators on these questions.

The commission should put any new applications on hold till the regulators act. And the Gaming Control Board should move promptly to clarify the meaning of "incidental," within the law.