Casino company agrees to $1 million fine

Paul Sloca

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2000 | 9:37 a.m.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Station Casinos Inc. has agreed to pay a $1 million fine to settle allegations that a St. Louis attorney used his influence with a former Missouri Gaming Commission chairman to secure licenses for the company's two riverboats in the state.

The commission voted 5-0 Wednesday to approve the confidential settlement, which will be effective once Las Vegas-based Station sells its St. Charles and Kansas City casinos.

Station, whose board approved the settlement late Tuesday, is selling the two riverboats to Ameristar Casinos Inc. The $475 million sale is expected to close Dec. 22, and the settlement calls for Station to pay the $1 million fine within two days of the closing.

Commissioners moved to revoke Station's Missouri license after top executives refused to appear at an August hearing on the activities of Michael Lazaroff, an outside attorney for the company.

The panel was investigating whether Lazaroff improperly contacted then-chairman Robert Wolfson in efforts to secure licenses for Station's Missouri riverboats.

Questions also centered on Station's payment of $500,000 in bonuses to Lazaroff from 1994 through 1996.

The state claimed there was evidence that Station executives should have known about the relationship between Lazaroff and Wolfson but chose to do nothing about it, and that the bonuses were based on the attorney's influence with Wolfson.

Station executives did appear before the commission and denied there was any link between Lazaroff's ties with Wolfson and the awarding of the licenses.

Wednesday's agreement contains no admission of wrongdoing by the company.

Robert Smith, the commission's vice chairman, called the settlement "a substantial fine and a reasonable disposition of the disputed matters."

Lazaroff, formerly with the St. Louis law firm of Thompson Coburn, pleaded guilty in June to two federal charges of mail fraud for defrauding his law partners and clients.

Among other things, he admitted hiding the $500,000 bonuses he received from Station. The money should have gone to Thompson Coburn, where, as a partner, Lazaroff's share would have been less than $10,000.

At his sentencing in October, Lazaroff agreed to surrender his law license. He was sentenced in October to 30 days in jail on a work release program, followed by 90 days home confinement, and was ordered to perform 120 hours of community service.

The $1 million fine is to be deposited into the Missouri School Fund, which receives gambling revenues to support education in Missouri.