The Nevada Gaming Control Board’s 12-count complaint filed Thursday against Resorts World Las Vegas and related entities is 31 pages long, but let’s cut to the chase.
Start with Paragraph 28: “As more fully alleged herein, the Board’s investigation revealed that Resorts World welcomed certain individuals to wager at its casino over a period of numerous months, while Resorts World executives knew, or should have known, that certain individuals were likely illegal bookmakers, that they had criminal convictions related to illegal gambling operations, or that they had ties to organized crime.”
That isn’t exactly news if you’ve been following the regulatory travails of Resorts World under the tenure of its former president and chief operating officer Scott Sibella, who ushered the $4.3 billion megaresort through the COVID recession and its June 2021 grand opening, then straight into a series of controversies.
Wiseguy gamblers, some with felony convictions, were sighted at the casino as early as July 9, 2021, according to law enforcement and gaming-industry sources. The discoveries were trumpeted on social media by vocal casino informant Robert Cipriani. One of the persons of interest was Edwin Ting, a high-roller with a 2014 illegal-gambling conviction and documented ties to a Russian organized-crime member.
Six of the counts in the Board’s complaint are related to Resorts World’s allegedly courting and allowing California resident Matthew Bowyer to play in the casino, despite knowledge of his status as a multimillion-dollar illegal bookmaker. Resorts World executives even allowed Bowyer’s wife, Nicole Bowyer, to act as his personal marketing representative. Bowyer last week pleaded guilty to bookmaking and tax evasion charges in connection with his role in accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in sports bets from Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star Shohei Ohtani.
If Mizuhara was a seriously compulsive gambler, Bowyer doesn’t appear to have been much better. He heaped cash play across the tables of Resorts World even as authorities closed in on him. It’s a bad look for the bookie and a worse one for the casino.
Counts seven and eight relate to Resorts World marketing personnel allowing a person identified as “Patron A” to gamble and lose approximately $10 million, knowing that he was an illegal bookmaker. According to the complaint, a Resorts World host was informed that the player “takes action.” An unnamed casino official identified as “Host 2” said he “was not the only one who kind of knew and it was kind of looked over.”
Although the Bowyer imbroglio has garnered the largest headlines, astute observers of developments at Resorts World might agree that the Control Board saved its most intriguing revelations for the final pages. Calling out Ting and Chad Iwamoto, convicted in 2014 of the transmission of wagering information and a tax violation in an enormous sports-betting case with ties to Las Vegas, added a degree of investigative sophistication to the complaint. It also served to illustrate how wide open the casino was to big players with checkered histories.
The gambling ring was associated with Malaysian high-roller and businessman Paul Phua and, according to authorities, over a seven-year span placed approximately $670 million in sports wagers.
But that’s all in the past, we’re informed by the casino company. The official statement: “Resorts World Las Vegas is aware of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB) complaint,” a Resorts World spokesperson said in a statement provided to KSNV-TV in Las Vegas. “We are committed to doing business with the utmost integrity and in compliance 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.”
Sibella, whose Bank Secrecy Act violation was related to his prior tenure as the president of the MGM Grand, wasn’t mentioned in the complaint. The 35-year casino veteran was fired from Resorts World in September 2023 after he “violated company policies,” but prior to the Bowyer blowup. The following month, a suit was filed against Sibella for allegedly allowing criminals to gamble at Resorts World Las Vegas with stolen and “ill-gotten” funds.
He was sentenced to a year’s probation and a $9,500 fine.
By the end of this mess, that might be the smallest price paid.
