Editorial: Jobs don’t trump right to privacy

Monday, Nov. 4, 2002 | 8:36 a.m.

The 2001 Legislature authorized a change in the way work cards for casino employees are administered, and the Nevada Gaming Commission is a month away from voting on proposed new regulations. The intent of the legislation was to provide a service to the workers by making the cards uniform statewide and good for five years. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which has long criticized the work-card regulations for infringing upon worker privacy, has been raising objections at public hearings, saying some of the new language does even more to violate worker privacy.

We understand that employers must be assured that dealers, change persons, and other employees who handle money are honest, and that customers must feel confident they will not be cheated or otherwise mistreated. To protect the integrity of the state's No. 1 industry, we strongly agree with doing criminal background checks on prospective casino employees and requiring them to have work cards. The background checks leading to issuance of the cards must be uniformly thorough, and to ensure this the state provides oversight through the gaming commission. Work cards are a vital part of Nevada's guarantee to the world that we have the most well regulated gaming industry anywhere.

While the importance of work cards cannot be overstated, the ACLU is right in asking for limitations on the depth of the background checks and limitations on who has access to the information. Gary Peck, who heads the ACLU in Nevada, wants language that protects potential workers who may have been arrested but were never convicted. He wants language that prevents intrusion into a person's personal life, such as their credit-card rating, health history or sexual orientation. He also wants the information gathered to be limited to enforcing the gaming regulations, and not to be routinely shared with other law enforcement agencies.

The Nevada Gaming Commission should adopt very clear and strict standards stipulating the circumstances under which a work-card investigation could go beyond a criminal background check. And unless extraordinary circumstances prevail, in which case a court order would be required, work-card information should be off limits to other law enforcement agencies. The state has a legitimate interest in checking for criminal records. But casino workers, like the rest of us, have privacy rights. In order to get a job, they should not have to lay bare their whole personal lives.

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