Vegas slot seller loses license

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1998 | 10:08 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A Las Vegas slot machine company and its president have agreed to have its state gaming license revoked for its part in the covert shipment of machines to an off-limits Indian reservation and then trying to launder part of the payoff.

Vintage Slot Machine and Amusement Co., 3379 Industrial Road, and its President Rudolph J. Lewis signed a stipulation with the state Gaming Control Board to also pay a $10,000 fine and $4,612 in costs.

Lewis, in the agreement, neither admits or denies the allegations in the complaint first filed by the board in April 1997 and then amended in September. But he pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego last December to a criminal charge of being an accessory to the illegal transportation of video slot machines to the Rincon Band of Mission Indians in Valley Center, Calif.

The tribe is not authorized to receive slot machines. As part of the federal plea bargain, Lewis agreed to have his Nevada gaming license revoked.

Sharon R. Lewis, the wife of Lewis and an officer and shareholder in the company, also will surrender her license. The stipulation said she was not involved in the day-to-day operation of the business.

The agreement must be approved by the state Gaming Commission, which meets Thursday in Carson City.

The complaint by the board said Lewis was visited by two men from Pittsburgh who were interested in buying a large number of video poker machines for the Indian casino. They gave him $55,000 towards the purchase.

Lewis talked to his lawyer who informed him it would be illegal to ship the machines to the tribe because it had not signed a compact with the state of California as required by federal law.

Lewis then met with Andrew Phelps and Mike Thieme of Bally Gaming to see how the deal could be made without jeopardizing his license. Phelps then allegedly introduced Lewis to Thomas Sytko, who had a resale business in Arizona and had an application pending before Nevada authorities for a license.

Sytko agreed to handle the purchase and shipment and he received $13,000 of the $55,000 given Lewis. Sytko purchased 124 machines from International Technical Systems and 126 machines from Bally Gaming and then shipped them to the Indians.

Sytko was not licensed in Nevada as a distributor.

Lewis then wanted to deposit $20,000 of the money in the Vintage Slot bank account but apparently did not want to report it, as required by regulations. He told an employee to make four deposits of $5,000 each to avoid the currency transaction law.

The complaint also said Lewis falsified a document in shipping a quarter slot machine to Terry Rea of Burnaby, B.C., in an apparent attempt to save Rea taxes imposed by Canada.

Lewis sold the machine for $2,000 but on the airline air cargo waybill, he put the total price of $850. The control board said this was a violation of federal export regulations.