Casino suing arcade operators

Wednesday, May 17, 2000 | 10:41 a.m.

Harrah's Las Vegas Inc. is seeking an order to recover an estimated $180,000 in delinquent license fees from two video arcade game operators.

In a Clark County District Court lawsuit, Harrah's said Amusement Consultants Ltd. of New Rochelle, N.Y., which had a three-year exclusive license starting Sep. 1, 1997, to operate video arcade games and other coin-operated amusement devices at Harrah's hotel-casino, allegedly stopped paying fees in December 1997 after assigning its license to Jester Court Games LLC of Las Vegas.

The suit said Amusement, which allegedly breached its license agreement by assigning its license to Jester without Harrah's consent, was to have paid Harrah's a monthly license fee "equal to a percentage of the total monthly gross revenue derived from the arcade games."

Harrah's said Amusement also failed to pay other fees, which equal "50 percent of total monthly gross revenues derived from (operating) several arcade games in Harrah's Dealers Lounge."

Harrah's, which said Amusement refused to provide an accounting of its gross revenues despite repeated demands, said in a letter to the defendants Amusement and Jester it estimated they owed $132,700 in delinquent license fees for 1998 and $47,499 for 1999. Harrah's said it believed these amounts would increase if it won a court order for a proper accounting.

The defendants' attorney couldn't be reached for comment.