Former editor sues Gaming Today to keep job at R-J

Grace Leong

Monday, Feb. 28, 2000 | 10:43 a.m.

Dirson Enterprises Inc.'s Gaming Today weekly newspaper was sued by former managing editor Len Butcher, who says a non-compete employment contract is preventing him from working at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Butcher said an R-J affiliate, Donrey New Media Ventures, was threatened with litigation by Dirson within weeks after he started working as a gaming editor at an R-J Internet website, causing him to be suspended until the dispute is resolved.

Butcher said he was hired Jan. 3 to oversee the R-J's new gaming information website CasinoGaming.com, which is tied to the R-J's website lasvegas.com.

These sites compete with the Las Vegas Sun's websites vegas.com and lasvegassun.com, which carry local and national gaming news and hotel-casino information.

The suit said Dirson accused Donrey of violating Butcher's May 21, 1997, noncompete and nondisclosure agreement when it hired him, and threatened to sue Donrey if it continued to employ him.

Butcher, who maintains Donrey doesn't publish any newspapers or magazines that compete with Gaming Today, said the agreement is "an unreasonable restraint on trade, covers an unreasonably broad territory and an unreasonably long period of time."

"I'm not aware that the website competes with Gaming Today for advertisers or readers," said Kenneth Myers, Butcher's attorney.

Butcher seeks an order in Clark County District Court to declare the agreement unenforceable because he was hired as an independent contractor for Gaming Today, and therefore any restriction on his ability to work for other employers is "burdensome, inequitable and violates Nevada public policy."

The suit said the three-year agreement was supposed to expire March 30, 2003, but the expiration date changed when Butcher left the weekly in December 1997. Under the current agreement, he is prohibited from working for a competing publisher until after December 2000.

Butcher, who said he was hired by Gaming Today for "his expertise in print media and positive relationships with people in the gaming community," relocated in 1998 to Toronto, where he worked briefly at a gaming publication.

The suit said Dirson also contacted that magazine and told them his employment there violated his noncompete agreement with Dirson.