Despite what some people may think, playing games of chance online and at brick-and-mortar locales is a pretty regulated affair. Most operators would not dare break any rules, given the dramatic consequences this brings. Still, such things do happen, and below, we list four examples of things going a bit haywire in this sphere that you may have yet to hear of.
The MGM Mirage’s Money Laundering – 2003
The Mirage used to be one of the hottest joints on the Vegas Strip. It was a sixty-five-acre venue, which spanned ninety thousand square feet and boasted three thousand rooms. Its construction began in 1986 as a project pushed forward by famed US real estate developer and casino mogul Steve Wynn, who advertised it as Nevada’s first mega-resort and, at that time, the world’s most expensive gaming establishment.
In 2000, Wynn left his position at the Mirage due to the MGM Grand purchasing his company for $4.4 billion. Following this move, this renowned property was renamed the MGM Mirage. Three years after this acquisition, representatives of this casino were forced to pay a fine of $5 million. It is the largest ever imposed by the Nevada Gaming Commission, for violations regarding unfiled 2001 and 2002 financial dealings. The investigative arm of the NGC published a ninety-one-page report that employees working for MGM Mirage did not submit reports as required by law to the country’s Internal Revenue Service. Hence, they deceived auditors concerning the casino’s processing of large cash transactions.
According to Bill Thompson, an industry expert and Vegas professor, the incident could have stemmed from unprofessional accounting practices rather than nefarious intentions to cover up money transfers.
Crown Casino Whales – 2019
Crown Resorts Limited is a gaming and tourism company established in 2007. It was the brainchild of James Packer, son of Australian media juggernaut Kerry Packer. James created Crown Resorts to break from his father’s traditional media businesses and move into Australia and Macau’s gambling industries. He did so by buying Cannery Casino Resorts for $1.75 billion. Today, this entity is still Australia’s most significant gaming resort brand. It owns the high-profile entertainment complexes Crown Sydney, Crown Perth, and Crown Melbourne.
In 2019, 60 Minutes Australia ran a story that Crown Resorts broke laws, leading to nineteen of its employees getting jail for not following China’s gambling regulations. The scandal made Packer sell 20% of his share in the company, half his stake. And, it sizably tarnished his reputation, as internet reports got made public that showed that Crown employees were encouraged to connect even with members of China’s criminal underworld to satisfy the company’s lust for profits.
Crown’s employees committed the crime of luring mainland China high-rollers to their venues, exploiting weaknesses in Australia’s visa system to have these gambling whales play poker at their properties. By that, we do not mean high-stakes card games, like those from WSOP Main Event news feeds, but slots, called poker machines in the Land Down Under. Crown was also guilty of disregarding money laundering through its junket operators.
Skimming at the Stardust Resort and Casino – 1983
The Stardust was a gaming locale in Winchester, Nevada, conceived by Tony Cornero, a notorious Los Angeles bootlegger who branched off into gambling entrepreneurship. Yet, Tony died after construction on the project began, and the endeavor was taken over by his brother, who ran into financial difficulty. This caused him to sell it to the wife of prohibition-era gangster Joh Factor, Rella Factor, who completed it, opening its doors in the summer of 1958. So, to say that this property had mob ties would be an understatement. It is the inspiration for the Tangiers in the movie Casino.
Skimming is a term that refers to practices related to siphoning off a portion of a business’s profits before they can get officially recorded on the books, meaning they get hidden from the authorities. At the start of the 1980s, the FBI proved that throughout the 1970s, employees at the Stardust skim at least $1.6 million from the venue and other Freemont casinos on behalf of several Midwestern Mob bosses. Herb Tobman and Allan Sachs, two veteran gaming executives who bought Stardust during the scandal, got hit with a $3 million fine. The Boyd Group then assumed its operations and ran the resort until eventually shutting it down in 2006.
The Eurolinx, BetOnBet, and Linx Casino Closure – 2009
For the last entry on this list, we add an unfortunate incident on the Internet side of the casino sector. In August 2009, news broke that Microgaming (now Games Global), the creator of the initial online gambling technology, terminated its partnership with Eurolinx. That was a brand operated by the Linx Media Group, which owned and managed BetOnBet and Linx Casino.
Microgaming declared Linx Media insolvent and terminated its agreements with its sites. It directed all gamblers to request their funds from relevant liquidators. They leave thousands of online game-of-chance lovers to worry about whether they will ever get their money back. Per rumors, the closure of these three brands stemmed from financial mismanagement and possible fraudulent activity. Sadly, few saw it coming, resulting in millions of dollars in player losses.