A minor update to Nevada’s regulations regarding private gaming salons was questioned by a member of the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) over concerns they were creating a loophole in a regulation approved last year.
On Thursday, the Commission approved amendments adding the word “wagering” twice to Regulation 5.200 governing the operations of private gaming salons.
“Specifically, current login requirements concerning guests of salon patrons … would be updated to narrow the login requirement to the name of a wagering guest, when a wagering guest enters or leaves a gaming salon,” said John Michela, senior deputy attorney general with the Nevada attorney general’s office.
Michela said the current requirement was adopted in August 2025 and requires logging in for all salon patron guests, not just the guests who place wagers. He noted that prior to last year’s changes, there was no login requirement at all for salon patron guests.
“At the time of the changes, the industry wasn’t overly concerned with this login requirement,” Michela said. “However, application has proved to be somewhat burdensome.”
Michela assured the Commission that the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s (NGCB) enforcement division determined that it doesn’t need information on all “the comings and goings of all salon patron guests. As such, the industry requested a slight narrowing of the log in requirement to wagering guests,” he said.
Commissioner George Markantonis made it clear he wasn’t that supportive of the proposed change. Markantonis eventually voted in favor of the minor change to the regulation, with Commissioner Richard Schonfeld absent from the debate and vote.
“I don’t understand when we talk about things that become somewhat burdensome when we are talking about compliance,” said Markantonis, a former casino executive with Caesars Palace and Las Vegas Sands.
Markantonis expressed concern over the people who enter gaming salons who are not known to casino surveillance or the casino marketing person who is assigned to work these private spaces. “I’m not comfortable creating loopholes that could sometimes be exploited,” he said.
Michela understood his concerns, but reminded Markantonis that up until a year ago, there were no login requirements for salon guests.
“We put this in place last year and we were very receptive to comments from the industry that maybe we went a little far (with) the actual enforcement regulatory requirement and based on that, they asked us to step it back a bit,” Michela said.
Virginia Valentine, president and CEO of the Nevada Resort Association, agreed, saying logging in wagering guests is even more regulation than the industry previously had. She stressed that these private salons have higher security and surveillance.
“(It’s) significant that the log in requirement will remain for the wagering guest,” Valentine told the Commission.
Among the changes approved to Regulation 5.200 last year, the financial criterion for admission to a gaming salon was reduced from $300,000 to $20,000. When salons were initially introduced in Nevada in 2001, the minimum financial commitment to play was $500,000, before being reduced to $300,000 in 2028.
Poker was added to the list of games offered in salons. The regulation requires an individual player buy-in of $10,000 with a total of $20,000 staked for a game to be conducted.
Salon slot machine minimums are not at the discretion of the licensee. Originally, slot machine minimums were set at $500. Nevada resorts can also convert private salons to public gaming without prior written approval from the NGCB chairman, while a salon patron can play for up to 24 hours instead of six hours previously allowed.
