Nevada gambling fees increase

David Strow

Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001 | 11:31 a.m.

Fees paid by gaming license applicants in Nevada escalated drastically Jan. 1 to fund sizable pay increases for employees of the state Gaming Control Board.

Effective Jan. 1, the hourly fee paid by gambling license applicants to the Control Board rose from $45 to $70 per hour, while electronic laboratory fees for new gaming devices rose from $55 to $75 an hour. The Control Board estimates the hikes will result in an additional $2.1 million in revenues.

Those increases are part of a general program to hike Control Board employee wages that was included in Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposed state budget. This plan will result in an average pay increase of 9 percent for Control Board employees in July, in addition to cost-of-living pay adjustments paid for by the state.

"The governor felt at this time, it was important to maintain the high talent level and high level of integrity at the Gaming Control Board, which we continue to believe is one of the finest regulatory bodies in the country," said Guinn press secretary Jack Finn. "That board is crucial to maintaining the integrity of the gaming industry, and helps with the image of the industry outside of Nevada."

As part of the integrity issue, one of the board's chief functions is to ensure gambling licensees pay their gaming taxes -- a major funding source for state government.

Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said the increase was needed to stop heavy turnover at the Control Board, which had been losing employees to other state and local agencies, gaming regulatory bodies in other states and the private sector. The board had been discussing ways to hike salaries with Guinn for more than a year.

"We'd fallen way behind," Neilander said. "We'll still be a little bit behind, but in terms of retaining our employees, it will be a tremendous help. It's been extremely frustrating over the years, because we've had employees tell us during exit interviews ... that they really enjoy working for the board, but that the salary had gotten so low that they didn't have a choice."

If approved, the top salary for control board agents will rise from $46,624 to $55,520 in July, a 19 percent hike. The top salary for senior agents will increase 17 percent to $61,072, and will rise 30 percent for supervisors to $75,537.

Board officials hope the raises will help control an on-going problem with turnover. In the fiscal year ending in June 2000, 12 percent of the board's 430 employees left their jobs.

The gap between Nevada government jobs and the private sector is already substantial -- about 26 percent, according to state reports. But the Control Board estimated its salaries ran 9.4 percent below comparable jobs in other state agencies. This increase will close the gap with comparable Nevada government jobs to 2.4 percent.

Turnover was particularly high in the audit division, with 16 percent turnover, investigations, with 18 percent turnover, and the tax and license division, which experienced 29 percent turnover.

"Once we get somebody trained up and they get some experience, that's when we were losing these people," Neilander said. "We were starting to lose some of our senior-level people as well. It's tough on the board, because ... we had a lot of newer people working on some fairly important projects without senior people helping train them. That slows everything down and makes it difficult to meet our goals.

"It closes the gap enough, and hopefully from there on we can continue to increase as others increase so we don't get behind."

But Neilander believes there won't be any slowdown in license applications as a result of the fee hike.

"We're not even at the top (for fees charged by state gaming regulatory bodies), and I would argue that the benefit you get from licensure in Nevada is instant credibility on a worldwide basis," he said.