Editorial: Safety top consideration for casinos

Tuesday, June 3, 1997 | 11:32 a.m.

THE murder of 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson has sent a thunderclap through Las Vegas' resort industry, renewing the debate over children in casinos.

The little girl was raped and murdered in the restroom of the Primm Valley hotel-casino shortly before 4 a.m. May 25, hours after she was allowed to roam the arcade alone while her father gambled upstairs. On three occasions, security guards noticed the girl was alone and then released her to her father or her 14-year-old brother. But, shortly before 4 a.m., cameras showed her alone again, entering the women's restroom.

An 18-year-old Long Beach man, who was shown on surveillance videotape playing hide-and-seek with the girl in the arcade, has been arrested in the murder. Metro Police are rightly concentrating on the homicide aspect of this case.

In light of this tragedy, casinos must review their policies on arcades aimed at attracting youths. Although there have been efforts to make this into a family vacation destination, Las Vegas remains a resort that caters to adults.

That does not mean, however, that children aren't welcome or that there shouldn't be activities and attractions geared to them.

However, Las Vegas' 24-hour lifestyle should not be promoted among youths. Arcades open 24 hours to all ages are in clear violation of the county's curfew law. Police regularly sweep the Strip of juveniles after hours, but in some casinos, there doesn't appear to be similar enforcement.

Large properties are demonstrating responsibility. The Luxor, Excalibur, The Mirage, Treasure Island and Circus Circus close their arcades are 11 p.m. or midnight. Some hotel-casinos offer supervised baby sitting at reasonable rates.

But, still others appear to ignore the children, as long as they comply with the law barring them from gaming areas.

That's clearly not good enough. No arcade should be unsupervised. No juvenile area should be open all night, if for no other reason than for the children's health and well-being.

Security guards should have procedures in place for dealing with children who are noticed playing alone -- not the third time, but the first time it occurs.

A casino cannot be held responsible for the girl's death, to be sure -- only the murderer has that on his hands.

Hotels and casinos no doubt will be reviewing their policies on children and arcades. Some will beef up security or restrict their arcade hours.

All our efforts should be focused on preventing another similar tragedy.

However, sadly, some of us are using Sherrice's death as a rallying point around other issues.

No rational human being cannot NOT wonder why LeRoy Iverson let his little girl roam the casino in the wee hours of the morning. We do not want to inflict any more grief on the man. But it's a question that will haunt all responsible parents who is afraid to let their children out of their sight for a few minutes.

Parents must take more responsibility for their children.

The media and other critics have been accused of castigating Iverson because he's black. Look at the facts; such a thin view doesn't even merit a rebuttal.

Some are using the murder as another platform to criticize Metro Police for not arresting the friend of the suspect who allegedly saw some of the attack.

In this case, Metro did its job -- detectives arrested a suspect within three days of the murder. The criticism is unjustified.

Let's not trivialize Sherrice's death. Instead, concentrate on ways to prevent a similar tragedy.