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Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Terrance K. Watanabe, right, claims to have lost $112 million at Harrah's casinos in 2007. He alleges the company encouraged him to gamble while intoxicated.
Sun Archives
- New attorney takes on booze defense (10-21-2009)
- Harrah's hires local gun to help in Watanabe case (9-13-2009)
- New attorneys assist in Harrah's probe of high roller's intoxication claims (7-25-2009)
- High-roller fights law regarding collection of gambling debts (7-17-2009)
- Grand jury indicts high roller in $14.7M casino debt case (4-29-2009)
- High roller posts $1.5 million bail to avoid jail stay (2-18-2009)
Back in May, a high roller went public with his allegations that Harrah’s Entertainment not only kept him drunk but provided him drugs to induce his massive gambling losses.
Nevada gaming regulators say they are now investigating the claims but are reluctant to go beyond an initial phase because the accusations surfaced in the middle of a criminal case filed against the wealthy gambler for allegedly not repaying Harrah’s Entertainment $14.7 million in markers. Regulators don’t want to interfere with the criminal case, which is being prosecuted by the district attorney’s office, so they have stayed on the sidelines while it plays out.
This has been a common approach in such cases over the years, leading to some public perception that there’s not enough proactive regulation of the industry’s major licensees.
On Thursday lawyers for the high roller, Nebraska philanthropist Terrance Watanabe, may have forced the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s hand by filing a detailed complaint against Harrah’s Entertainment with the agency that gives regulators a blueprint for digging further into allegations against the world’s largest casino company.
Watanabe, 52, wants regulators to “suspend” Harrah’s license or take “other appropriate disciplinary action” against the company. In a 24-page letter to the Control Board, his lead attorney, Pierce O’Donnell of Los Angeles, wrote that “the public’s confidence in the integrity of Nevada casinos will undoubtedly be seriously shaken by the egregious facts of Mr. Watanabe’s case.”
“The only thing worse would be the Nevada casino regulators turning a blind eye to this notorious violation of law, blight on the state of Nevada’s repute and glaring detriment to the gaming industry.”
This week Gaming Control Board members said they regarded the allegations raised by Watanabe as serious, but stressed that they wouldn’t take regulatory action until the criminal proceedings against Watanabe are over.
“We’re not going to do anything until that criminal case is resolved,” Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said. “We don’t want to interfere with the criminal case.”
Board member Randall Sayre added, “From my perspective, this is a very serious matter with regards to the allegations. We are watching it closely and reserving our options as to whether or not to take any further action.”
A New Jersey official said regulators there follow a similar approach when allegations of wrongdoing involving a licensee arise out of another law enforcement agency’s criminal investigation.
O’Donnell, however, told the Sun that he hoped Nevada regulators would now launch a full-blown investigation into the information he provided them. If the Control Board doesn’t do that, it would be failing to exercise its statutory responsibility to the public, he alleged.
“The Control Board is not some neutral referee sitting on the sidelines,” he said. “Its job is to investigate and prosecute licensees for known violations of the law.”
Neilander and Sayre could not be reached for comment late Thursday.
Harrah’s spokesman Gary Thompson declined to comment, and so did a lawyer retained by Harrah’s, Dominic Gentile.
But in an August letter to Watanabe’s lawyers, Gentile said the company views Watanabe’s accusations as “meritless” and part of an attempt to “coerce” Harrah’s into encouraging the district attorney to drop the criminal case. Gentile emphasized in the letter that Harrah’s is the victim here, not Watanabe. He warned that Harrah’s would file a countersuit against Watanabe for abusing the legal process if Watanabe sued Harrah’s.
O’Donnell filed Watanabe’s lawsuit against Harrah’s on Thursday.
In O’Donnell’s complaint to the Control Board, he said Gentile’s letter was part of an effort by Harrah’s to cover up its misconduct and deflect legal responsibility from the company.
O’Donnell also alleged that Harrah’s “appears to be engaging in witness tampering and intimidation” by getting people to sign declarations indicating Watanabe was never intoxicated at its casinos.
Watanabe’s lawyer provided regulators with the names of nearly a dozen witnesses who he says could substantiate Watanabe’s accusations that Harrah’s officials unlawfully preyed on his gambling addiction and supplied him nonstop with alcohol and prescription painkillers as he racked up $112 million in gambling losses in 2007.
A large portion of Watanabe’s gambling that year occurred at two Harrah’s properties, Caesars Palace and the Rio. He had switched to the casinos in June 2007 after Wynn Las Vegas Chairman Steve Wynn recognized that Watanabe was an alcoholic and compulsive gambler and no longer allowed him to play at his resort, O’Donnell wrote.
O’Donnell likened Harrah’s treatment of Watanabe over the next six months to “drug dealers feeding a heroin addict’s deadly habit” and said it “warrants the most severe sanctions.”
Casino security officers kept watch over Watanabe during this time under orders from the “highest management levels” — not to protect him but to help casino officials control his movements to keep him gambling, O’Donnell wrote.
He said Watanabe was “reduced to a robot-like existence” at Caesars Palace, where he stayed for months during his epic gambling binge.
This case gives me a headache. Anyone has some sake for me?
History will show the Nevada Gaming Control Board and Commission has always turned a blind eye, going all the way back to Harry Reid's days on the Gaming Boards. It is a huge 'fraternity' of regulators and casino operators. If the truth ever comes out in this case, Nevada, and Harrahs will be forever embarrassed and the citizens of Nevada will be the ones to suffer. The GCB has always practiced selective persecution...time to overhaul the entire system, before the Feds step in and take it over.
I do feel that casino's should seriously regulate the markers they give out. A guy like this should have to prove his solvency BEFORE recieving these "checks" from the casino. If Mr. Wynn even was able to recognize that this guy was on a collision course, certainly he did the right thing by bouncing him out. Just wonder if he collected his markers before he did it. I think that the most positive thing that should come out of this sorry episode, is a new statute which requires casinos to cut off compulsive gamblers from markers, require proof of solvency, and have a 48 hour cooling off period for that person to get some sleep and nourishment and some time to think about what he or she is doing to themselves before they are completely financially ruined. Believe me, I'm a compulsive gambler and I understand what it's like to chase your money. I also have experienced what a little recovery time upstairs and some room service nourishment can rescue the imbibed brain for more responsible thinking..
Just what Las Vegas needs right now, another black eye from bad behavior by casino pinheads. Assuming even a small fraction of the allegations are true, Harrah's is more rotten to its core than even I ever suspected. Shame, shame, shame.
This is certainly not the first time Harrah's has been involved in such sordid activity:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2004/may...
Excerpts from the email referred to in the news story linked above. The names of the casino employees were in the email, but have been omitted here:
---------------------------------------------------
At table BJ-41 (one of your 6 to 5 games), an obviously severely intoxicated patron was playing large stacks of chips. The patron was so drunk that he could not even stack his chips. He repeatedly knocked the stacks over, and chips were scattered all over the layout, and a few were on the floor. ...
He was behaving obnoxiously, sometimes throwing his cards, sometimes walking away from the table mid-hand, etc. Eventually, his antics caused your pit personnel to instruct security guards to stand by the table to keep bystanders back. ... Amazingly, the cocktail waitress kept bringing him alcohol.
He was so drunk, he could not even pick up his cards. The Assistant Casino Manager, ... came over, picked up the cards, and played the patron's hand for him. When a concerned citizen asked the cocktail waitress why they were still serving him alcohol, she replied that he was a known regular, was staying in the hotel, and they did not care how drunk he gets because he doesn't get overly belligerent regardless of how much he loses, and he tips well.
A crowd was gathering to watch. Some of the crowd was starting to heckle the floor supervisor, ..., asking why he did not terminate play because of the patron's obvious intoxication.
After the patron nearly fell down a couple of times, the Gaming Control Board was called, due to the flagrant violation by your employees of Nevada Gaming Regulation 5.011, which states, in pertinent part:
5.011 Grounds for disciplinary action. ...
A Gaming Control Board agent responded, and instructed Mr. ... to terminate the patron's play. The Agent then left. However, Mr. ... failed to stop play, despite apparently telling the Agent that he would do so. The crowd was becoming unruly, at which time the security shift supervisor, ..., arrived on the scene. In response to an observer's polite question about why play was not stopped, Mr. ... snapped, "That's between the casino manager and Gaming, and is none of your business."
Subsequently, at least two individuals called Gaming back, and the Agent was re-dispatched to the Horseshoe. Pending his return, play continued. The patron was so incapacitated, he once stood on a total of 6.
After the Agent arrived the second time, play was finally halted, and the patron staggered away, leaving hundreds of dollars of his chips on the table. No effort was made to escort the patron to his room, or assist him in any way. Mr. ... and his subordinates simply let him walk away without his chips. Mr. ... subsequently placed the chips into racks, and took them in the direction of the cage, without any other employees accompanying him. It did not appear to witnesses that any verification of the total was made prior to Mr. ... departing with the racks of chips. ...
In my opinion the Nevada Gaming Control board has always done an outstanding job of policing the integrity of gaming. They also have been an outstanding intermediary involving customer/casino disputes and i have seen those unbiased decisions go both ways. The problem we have today in gaming is the same ugly scenarios that we see all over corporate America and what has got us in this mess in the first place. Decades ago even without the help of the G.C.B Gaming execs operated with their own code of ethics for the long term good of their businesses and the reputation of an industry that already had a cloud of suspicion surrounding it. The code was also very important to the prosperity of Las Vegas. Decades ago casino exec's lived in our communities as casinos were centralized in Nevada. Where does Loveman live. Is Harrahs even a Nevada company? Where are Harrahs main offices? All of Nevada's politicians better realize that this company practices corporate greed at its ugliest level with no regard to laws or the former codes of conduct we have taken for granted in Nevada. AT least Mr. Wynn seems to still follow ethical standards at some level. Harrahs is very bad for gaming and very,very bad for Nevada. If anyone doubts this just walk into any Harrahs run casino late night and ask yourself do i feel safe? Headline after, headline, after headline. I don`t know if the gaming control board can do the job alone but something has to be done. Renegades who don't care about Nevada.
when was it said he was playing at the horsehoe
I guess the mob never left town.
Do they also put "mikeys" in the drinks?
What a crock.
The Gaming Commission won't investigate until the criminal case is over because they are simply hoping he is found "guilty" so that they then can rely on such a verdict in order to avoid having to do their job.
It'll provide them with the excuse they want so that they don't have to lift a finger, which the Gaming Commission will never do because they are a bunch of cowards whose pockets are likely lined themselves.
Harrah's owns the gaming control board and D.A. Bernie Zadrowski....only the feds can break up this criminal enterprise...