Gaming Control Board Now Involved in Probe of Alleged Money Laundering in Nevada Casinos

We are learning Thursday evening that the Nevada Gaming Control Board has joined in an ongoing probe into potential money laundering activities at some Las Vegas casinos.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board until now has remained awkwardly silent regarding the prosecution of casino executive Scott Sibella by federal officials out of California, Dana Gentry of the Nevada Current reports.

The federal investigation, first reported by the Current in August, landed the GCB in a pickle.

Prior to the Current's shocking confirmation, GCB's George Assad told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the allegations “against Resorts World and its president, Scott Sibella, were found to be unsubstantiated.”  And the LVRJ wasn't exactly reporting on the story either.

Around six months after Assad's assertion in August 2023, federal investigators issued a subpoena to Resorts World for records of cash and wire transactions. The company swiftly fired Sibella a month later, saying he violated company policy and Sibella would go on to enter into a plea agreement where he admitted to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) that requires financial institutions and casinos to report any suspicious transactions.

Sibella failed to report that a convicted Southern California bookie, Wayne Nix, paid a marker at the MGM Grand with $120,000 in cash in 2018.  Sibella, who is scheduled to be sentenced May 8 in California, told unidentified law enforcement agents he “heard that Nix was in the booking business” but didn’t want to know the source of his money. “I stay out of it. If we know, we can’t allow them to gamble.” 

MGM and the Cosmopolitan, where Nix also gambled, entered non-prosecution agreements with the feds and paid a collective $7.45 million fine, Gentry reports.

“It just looks like the GCB had to come out or look totally incompetent,” said Richard Schuetz, a veteran casino executive and former California gaming regulator who suggests the GCB may intentionally be loosening the lid on its investigation. “It looks like they slept through this.”

The ongoing investigation remains one of Gambling911.com's most sought after story, mostly by Vegas execs.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com