Nevada Gaming Board weighs casino trespasser payouts amidst growing concerns

The Nevada Gaming Control Board is deliberating whether to permit individuals who have been ejected from a casino to collect their winnings if they manage to re-enter and secure a victory.

On October 4, members of the gaming board made a decision to honor the payment of a slot machine jackpot exceeding $2,000 to an individual with a history of trespassing. The individual had previously won the jackpot earlier in the year at the Casablanca hotel-casino in Mesquite, Nevada, according to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The casino contested the payout, citing multiple incidents of alleged misconduct, including petty theft, disorderly behavior, and recurrent trespass violations, with six documented occurrences spanning from 2011 to the previous year. Despite these concerns, the trespasser managed to re-enter the casino and secure jackpots on three separate occasions over several months, the report said.

Officials in the gaming industry have expressed growing concerns about the issue, particularly along the Las Vegas Strip. Banned gamblers have evidently recognized that minor fines for trespassing violations do not act as an effective deterrent to sneaking back into a casino and resuming their slot machine play.

Christopher Lalli, an Assistant District Attorney in Clark County, conducted a review of records from July, which revealed 87 trespass cases brought before a Las Vegas judge presiding over a specialized resort corridor court. In most instances, defendants typically plead guilty and are issued orders to abstain from the casino premises, usually for a six-month duration.

As per the report, authorities have noted that trespassers frequently disregard these judicial orders and proceed to re-enter casinos. When they subsequently win jackpots, they anticipate that regulators will enforce policies established decades ago, requiring their winnings to be paid out.