A convicted bookmaker whose gambling action led to multi-million-dollar fines against Resorts World Las Vegas and Caesars Entertainment is poised to have his name entered in Nevada’s Black Book of excluded persons.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board Wednesday will consider making a recommendation to the Gaming Commission on banning Matthew Bowyer from its casinos. The consideration as announced in December comes after regulators excluded bookmaker Wayne Nix.
Bowyer pleaded guilty in federal court in September 2024 to operating an unlawful gambling business, money laundering, and subscribing to a false tax return. He was sentenced in August to 12 months in prison.
Resorts World was fined $10.5 million in March after it was accused of a culture that welcomed individuals, including Bowyer, with suspected ties to illegal bookmaking. Resorts World opened in June 2021.
Suspected or known felons wagering at Resorts World included Bowyer and Edwin Ting, who was convicted in federal court of conducting an illegal gambling business and is known to have ties to organized crime, according to the NGCB. Chad Iwamoto was convicted in federal court of transmission of wagering information and failing to file monthly tax returns. There has been no announcement so far of their possible inclusion in the Black Book.
Bowyer was a patron of Caesars’s from 2017 to January 2024, which stopped only after the FBI executed a search warrant on his home. In November 2025, Caesars was fined $7.8 million for its dealings with the bookmaker and failing to ban him from their properties after having suspicions about his activities and source of funds. Caesars had won $2.6 million from Bowyer over seven years.
Gary Carano, executive chair of Caesars Board of Directors at Caesars Entertainment, told the Commission in November that the way their anti-money-laundering program operated in dealings with Bowyer was unacceptable.
“I apologize for our role in the Bowyer incident and the impact it had on the gaming industry in the state of Nevada. Compliance has always been part of our DNA,” Carano said.
In Nix’s case, MGM Resorts International was fined $8.5 million by the Nevada Gaming Commission for knowingly dealing with an illegal bookmaker as part of an anti-money-laundering case. The MGM Grand took $4 million in cash from Nix, while the Cosmopolitan, which it didn’t operate at the time, took more than $900,000 in wagers.
The MGM Grand case involved former COO and President Scott Sibella, who in December 2023 pleaded guilty to federal charges of failing to report Nix. His license was revoked by the Nevada Gaming Commission in December 2024. Nix pleaded guilty in April 2022 to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. His long-delayed sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 6.
“These two individuals certainly qualify for the list of excluded persons,” Board member George Assad said during a December hearing. “Nix and Bowyer have brought so much negative publicity to the state.”
