Gaming panel OKs Coast sports book settlement

Friday, March 25, 2005 | 10:13 a.m.

By Richard N. Velotta

LAS VEGAS SUN

The Nevada Gaming Commission has approved a settlement agreement and a $250,000 fine for Coast Hotels and Casinos Inc., for violations in its sports book operations and financial reporting requirements.

In a stipulation signed by Coast President Harlan Braaten, admitted to violating state regulations in five allegations in a six-count complaint brought by the state Gaming Control Board, and admitted to violating public policy in sports wagering on the sixth count.

The sports book violations, which involved the operation of an illegal sports wagering pool, occurred between 1998 and 2000 and were brought to light in a federal investigation that occurred between 2000 and 2002. The financial reporting incidents occurred between 2001 and 2004.

Gaming commissioners approved the settlement in a 4-0 vote Thursday, with Commissioner Arthur Marshall declaring a conflict of interest and not voting.

A representative of Coast, which has since been acquired by Boyd Gaming Corp., delivered two checks totaling $250,000 to the commission on Thursday. The violations occurred before Boyd acquired Coast.

Two of the six counts of the complaint dealt with Coast's operation of a telephone account wagering system housed at the company's Orleans property. According to a complaint filed by Senior Deputy Attorney General Toni Cowan on behalf of the Gaming Control Board, the FBI searched several residents in Las Vegas in an investigation of illegal gambling charges against Arthur Bodendorfer.

Bodendorfer, who was not named in the complaint, was charged and pled guilty to two counts of participation in an illegal gambling business in Las Vegas between March 1998 and May 2000.

In the course of the investigation against Bodendorfer, an apartment he owned occupied by Wen Hung Lien and his wife, Evangline Wong, was searched and agents found evidence of 28 wagering accounts. A Coast telephone wagering account was opened by Wong in her name, but telephone records indicated she made several daily baseball bets. The complaint said the casino did not take all the required information from Wong for a telephone account.

Coast employees said Lien and Wong between between $2,000 and $50,000 per game, with an average total bet for a day between $100,000 and $300,000.

The complaint said Coast made no effort to determine whether illegal messenger betting was taking place.

The second count of the complaint said Coast accepted telephone wagers from Lien and Wong when wagering was closed to other patrons.

In the complaints involving the four financial reporting violations, the Gaming Control Board said the allegations were administrative in nature and that Coast did not demonstrate any intent to circumvent reporting requirements. The board also found no evidence of money-laundering activity.

The four violations occurred at the company's Suncoast property and involved Western Union wiring out money in greater increments than permitted by regulations. According to the complaint, Western Union transfers of more than $3,000 are prohibited.

The complaint said $4,000 was transferred Sept. 9, 2001; $4,545 on April 22, 2002; $3,250 on March 30 and 31, 2004; and $3,340 on April 7, 2004.

In other business, the commission approved the licensure of Green Valley Ranch executive casino host Patrick Traficant as a key employee.

Traficant was recommended for approval by the Gaming Control Board in a split vote earlier this month. Board member Bobby Siller was critical of Traficant's past associations with organized crime figures in Ohio.

But commissioners voted unanimously to approve the license, noting that Traficant's associations occurred in the 1970s and that he invited some of them to Las Vegas because their names were on casino contact lists.