Children’s security at issue

Rachael Levy

Wednesday, May 28, 1997 | 10:48 a.m.

A Nevada gaming expert says the murder of a 7-year-old girl, left unattended in a casino arcade Sunday, is a painful lesson to the industry that safety must be strengthened.

UNLV Professor Bill Thompson said casino executives should view the death of Sherrice Iverson, raped and strangled in a Primm Valley hotel-casino restroom early Sunday, as a warning.

"Whatever security we need we must have and this tells us that we need more," Thompson said Tuesday. "We can't have violence inside of casinos. It is the kind of thing that will ruin the industry.

"Every parent coming in to Vegas this week is sure as hell going to worry about their kids. They're not going to be good gamblers. ... Casinos that market to families must be extremely vigilant."

Primm Valley, formerly the Primadonna, located in Primm on the Nevada-California border about 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas, has more than 300 surveillance cameras on casino grounds, Metro Police said. Two cameras are focused on the arcade area, police said.

The casino called the girl's death a tragedy and said security measures were working that morning.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokesman Rob Powers said he does not think the murder will permanently affect the city and instead may highlight families' responsibilities to their children.

The issue of children's safety is rising in importance as more families vacation in Las Vegas. The Convention and Visitors Authority said this past year about 3 million people -- or 11 percent of the total number of visitors -- brought their children to Las Vegas. Two years ago, only 6 percent did.

Nevada Child Seekers and other child advocates said casinos do an adequate job of providing supervision. County authorities said they are asked just three to five times a month to pick up lost children at casinos.

Nevada law forbids children from loitering near gambling areas, yet the statutes remain silent on the level of casino supervision over these young guests.

Casinos such as the Gold Coast, MGM Grand and Boulder Station have responded with the creation of licensed child-care centers that are free or cost less than $10 per child. Others refer parents to private, bonded baby sitters or equip arcades with surveillance cameras and security guards.

"We don't charge," said Gold Coast Day Care Manager Ruth Hall. "It's a service that we provide for our customers rather than have children run loose all over the casino.

"We have people who stay at our hotel because we have child care. This is an adult town. If you come to this town and you don't have a baby sitter, what are you going to do?"

Some leave their children unattended in motel rooms, send them to game rooms with a couple rolls of quarters or order them to stand nearby for hours as they gamble.

A former casino security manager with more than five years experience said one time she had to hunt down the parents of three children -- 7, 4 and 6 months -- who were left in a restroom.

"When you think about it, with schemes like the 99-cent buffet, parents have more money to gamble. If they think they can skimp on child care, they'll have money for the big one," said the security manager who asked not to be named.

Another time, the manager said parents of a 7-year-old boy drove to Barstow, Calif., before discovering their child was missing. Security found the distraught boy in the arcade, bought him a sundae and reported the incident to authorities.

"More times than I care to say, parents would turn around and their child was not there and we'd be looking for a child in a crowd," she said.

A private baby-sitting service, Nanny's & Granny's, has seen its hotel business boom. Owner Carol Hale said when she opened in 1987 she made just under $5,000 a month caring for children of casino guests. Today, Hale said she pulls in at least $40,000 a month.

"That whole trend of Las Vegas as Sin City to Las Vegas as a family vacation spot helped a lot," she said.

But with that change comes responsibility on the part of parents and casinos, child advocates said.

Nevada Child Seekers Director Jill LeMasurier said arcades are attractive to child predators and casinos must provide tight security for those areas. But she said the ultimate responsibility rests with parents.

"I think a parent has to use their smarts and their discretion," LeMasurier said. "It was the parent's responsibility. How stupid of that man (Sherrice Iverson's father) that he didn't know where his child was."

Child Seekers has 500 Clark County volunteers prepared to begin an organized search for a missing child if notified by police, LeMasurier said. The group has never been called for a casino search and instead uses the casinos to spread its message.

Child Seekers is hosting a safety festival Saturday at Circus Circus where it will be handing out free DNA identification kits and taking children's fingerprints. The festival continues Sunday at the Meadows Mall.

Such events help counter the negative publicity that fell upon Las Vegas following this weekend's murder in Primm. But Thompson said greater security steps must be taken.

"No matter what the crime rate is in Las Vegas, people have an image that the Las Vegas Strip is very, very safe," he said. "If we lose that (public confidence), we lose a big part of our tourist attraction."