MGM Resorts and Resorts World were fined $19 million by Nevada regulators for providing sanctuary to unlawful bookmakers. Despite sharing a key executive and bookmaker at the heart of the controversy, both casinos failed compliance checks.
Following an investigation into unlicensed bookmakers laundering money at two of its Las Vegas casinos, MGM Resorts International claims it has increased its efforts to avoid future crimes.
It is spending more than a million dollars on anti-money laundering compliance. In the last decade, it has submitted 46,000 suspicious-activity reports and prohibited over 2,600 clients from gambling, to mention a few of the adjustments MGM Resorts officials described to gaming authorities in April.
In an attempt to tackle money laundering by illicit bookies, the Nevada Gaming Commission has fined MGM Resorts and Resorts World Las Vegas’s owner, Genting Berhad, $19 million over the last two months. When Nevada gambling regulators imposed some of the largest fines ever, the businesses’ reactions varied.
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Commissioners considered approving the disciplinary action and reprimanded Resorts World for permitting an illegal bookmaker to operate at the casino for 20 months after it opened in 2021. In March, top executives and members of a recently formed gaming regulatory compliance committee allowed outside counsel to review the details of a settlement involving a $10.5 million fine, the second-highest fine ever assessed.
The fine was ultimately approved by commissioners by a vote of 4-0 with one abstention. Jim Murren, the CEO of Resorts World; A.G. Burnett, the former chairman of the Gaming Control Board; Michelle DiTondo, a seasoned HR professional who had previously worked at MGM and Caesars Entertainment; K.H. Tan, the president and CEO of Genting; and Brian Sandoval, the former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and a former governor of Nevada, attorney general, federal judge, and current president of the University of Nevada, Reno, sat patiently and took in the critical commission remarks.
A month later, MGM took a different approach when the commission imposed a $8.5 million punishment with the same vote for permitting two unlicensed bookmakers to operate at MGM Grand and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas from 2017 to 2020.
Each example has two common denominators. Scott Sibella was the senior executive at MGM Grand and Resorts World at the time of the occurrences, and Mathew Bowyer, a California citizen, was one of the illicit bookmakers in both cases. Sibella’s license was cancelled by the commission in December.
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