A complaint filed by the Nevada Gaming Control Board alleges that Resorts World Las Vegas looked the other way as it won millions of dollars from known illegal bookmakers and convicted felons whose source of funds could not be verified.
The GCB alleges “a general lack of control within Resorts World and the acceptance of a corporate culture among Resorts World’s senior management in which information about suspicious or illegal activities is at least negligently ignored or at worst deliberately ignored for financial reasons, given the general pressure on Resorts World to generate revenue and the fact that Resorts World’s senior management bonuses are directly linked to Resorts World’s financial success.”
“Resorts World Las Vegas is aware of the complaint from the Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB),” a spokesperson said via email. “We are committed to conducting our business with the highest integrity and in accordance with applicable laws and industry guidelines. We have been actively communicating with the GCB to resolve these issues so we can move forward and focus on our guests and nearly 5,000 team members.”
The complaint details minutes of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Compliance Committee meetings where executives ignored the casino manager’s suggestion that player Matt Bowyer was an illegal bookmaker and ultimately had that information removed from the meeting minutes.
In December 2021, Bowyer, a California resident, submitted a loan application for $5,000 that was later converted to a $1 million advance application, the complaint says. Bowyer said he was self-employed as a real estate investor, but Resorts World could not verify the legality of his business but received the million dollars anyway.
Bowyer deposited a $1 million upfront fee in February 2022 “and was allowed to bet despite Resorts World failing to demonstrate a source of funds,” the GCB complaint states.
In April 2022, Resorts World entered into an independent agency agreement with Bowyer’s wife, Nicole, who is also facing a separate lawsuit. The arrangement allowed Mrs. Bowyer to earn commissions from her husband’s gambling activities.
“Ms. Bowyer received payments from Resorts World despite knowing with certainty that her husband’s source of funds came, at least in part, from illegal activities,” the complaint states.
At Resorts World’s AML Committee meeting in July 2022 According to the protocol cited in the complaint, The casino’s director of operations stated that Bowyer “is a well-known bookmaker and uses his wife’s independent hospitality business as a front. The AML Committee was required to make recommendations to exclude, ban or otherwise restrict guests from Resorts World under the AML program.”
A vice president of compliance requested further review of Bowyer’s source of funds at the August 2022 committee meeting “for a possible connection to the sports betting business,” the complaint states. “Bowyer lost nearly $1.2 million in two months while Resorts World failed to verify his source of funds.”
At the Compliance Committee meeting in February 2023, the head of casino operations again claimed that Bowyer was “a well-known bookmaker and was using his wife’s business as a front.”
A month later, according to the minutes of the March 2023 meeting, “Managing Director A that Mr. Bowyer is no longer hosting himself, but his wife Nicole Bowyer. Executive Director A also moved to remove the word “bookmaker” from the January 2023 agenda as it was the opinion of a single person and there was no evidence of such conduct.” The minutes mention Bowyer’s wife as the hostess and the word “bookmaker” was removed from the previous agenda.
“Resorts World executives explained to board members that an investigation into the source of funds should not take longer than 90 days,” the complaint states. “However, Bowyer was allowed to play at Resorts World for approximately 20 months without any evidence of his source of funds and without his source of funds matching his level of play.”
The Anti-Money Laundering Committee has failed to exercise due diligence, follow-up measures and adequately implement the Know Your Customer protocol.
According to the complaint, the anti-money laundering committee was composed of “Resorts World’s senior management and included the anti-money laundering officer, the president, the chief financial officer, the general counsel, the senior vice president, the senior VP of player development, the director of monitoring and the director of compliance.”
Former resort president Scott Sibella said he was on the committee but never attended a meeting.
“I relied on my leadership team to address compliance issues,” Sibella said via text message on Thursday. “At MGM, I relied on the Corporate Compliance Committee, which I was never invited to attend.”
Gerald Gardner, Resorts World’s general counsel and a member of the Compliance Committee, declined to say whether he attended the meetings in question or to confirm that Sibella was not there.
Sibella declined to comment on whether he takes responsibility for the allegations in the GCB complaint, many of which were made before his dismissal in September 2023.
Sibella, the former president of MGM Grand, reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors in the Central District of California earlier this year for failing to file a suspicious activity report when known illegal bookmaker Wayne Nix paid off a gambling debt at MGM with $120,000 in cash.
The GCB submitted its own Complaint against Sibella and MGM in April, but has not yet taken any action.
The move ended months of silence and inaction by state regulators while federal officials from California launched investigations, filed charges and Agreement on the admission of guilt with Sibella and a non-prosecution agreement with MGM, which paid a fine of $7.45 million.
In October 2023, during a marketing trip to an NFL football game in Dallas, “Bowyer informed RW LV Host One that Bowyer ‘keeps a book’ and asked RW LV Host One to refer clients to Bowyer. Bowyer offered RW LV Host One money in exchange for referring clients to Bowyer.”
Host One, whose identity is not known, gave Bowyer the name of a client but later “felt uncomfortable referring his Resort World client to Bowyer and subsequently sent the client a message telling him to stay away from Bowyer.” The host did not tell Resorts World that Bowyer was a bookmaker.
A few days after his Resorts World trip to Dallas, federal agents raided Bowyer’s home in California.
Resorts World allowed Bowyer and Damien LeForbes to stay at the current reported in August 2023 that federal authorities were investigating MGM Grand and Resorts World and whether illegal bookmakers were obtaining confidential player information from their hosts.
“Resorts World permitted Bowyer to play on 80 separate days between approximately July 2022 and October 2023,” and during that time, “it offered Bowyer numerous benefits to encourage him to play at Resorts World, including free services, special offers, chips, gifts, discounts and flights,” the lawsuit states. “Ultimately, Bowyer lost over $6.6 million during that period. During the entire time Bowyer was a customer at Resorts World, Bowyer lost over $7.9 million.”
Each day Bowyer gambled “constitutes a separate violation” of gambling laws.
Customer A, who told his host at Resorts World that he was a bookmaker, lost $10 million at Resorts World between September 2022 and December 2023, according to the complaint, and gambled on 150 separate days during that period.
Guest A’s host testified to board representatives that he did not tell superiors that Guest A was a bookmaker because he “thought he was not the only one who somehow knew” and the others had overlooked it.
It is not known whether Patron A is Le Forbes. In May, the current reported According to sources, LeForbes, who is being investigated by federal authorities in connection with illegal sports betting, has amassed losses of $12.3 million on nearly four dozen trips to Resorts World.
The lawsuit also alleges that Resorts World extended credit to convicted illegal gambler Edwin Ting after his application was initially denied. Ting lost more than $800,000 between June 2021 and July 2023 and was not suspended until August 2023 following an internal review.
Resorts World also allowed Chad Iwamoto to participate in gambling, even though he pleaded guilty to the crime of transmitting betting information in 2014.
The GCB states that its investigation will not be completed pending the development of appropriate federal procedures.
