Fraud charges dropped against Harris

Tuesday, March 3, 1998 | 3:58 a.m.

Harris was indicted in July 1996 on four felony counts. The indictment accused the 11-year employee of the board's Electronic Services Division of rigging slot machines, then sending friends to play them.

District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski dismissed the charges as a result of Harris' September guilty plea to a single count of racketeering for similar crimes in Washoe County. The dismissals involved charges that were lodged in Clark County as the result of slot cheating incidents at casinos in Laughlin and Las Vegas.

In January, the 41-year-old Harris was sentenced to seven years.

The cheating was uncovered in January 1995 when Harris and an accomplice won a $100,000 keno jackpot at Bally's Park Place in Atlantic City, N.J. He is awaiting trial on the New Jersey charges, but officials said a sentence in that case will run at the same time as his Nevada sentence.

Prosecutors estimate Harris' scam netted about $47,000 from Nevada slot machines between 1992 and 1995.

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