Club promises zero tolerance
Managers at the Foundation Room in Las Vegas have fired the employees who agreed to provide illegal drugs and prostitutes to undercover law enforcement agents last year.
The Foundation Room is a New Orleans-themed restaurant and bar at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. The charges led to a $500,000 fine against MGM Resorts International, which owns Mandalay Bay and leases the space to the House of Blues. MGM also agreed to pay $17,000 in reimbursement for investigative expenses.
A spokesman for MGM told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the managers “took appropriate and swift action in dealing with this situation, terminating the involved employees and ending relationships with third parties responsible for these wrongdoings.”
Undercover officers said restaurant and lounge employees provided cocaine, Ecstasy pills and four women who agreed to have sex for money on four occasions over a two-month period in summer 2012. Ten HOB employees and at least five non-staffers were implicated in the sting. Most of the illicit activities took place in public areas at the resort, the Review-Journal reported.
“While these activities took place outside our knowledge, we acknowledge our responsibility, as landlords, to monitor all nightclub and ultra lounge operators at our resorts,” said MGM in a statement. “The intolerable activities discovered by investigators are obviously completely contrary to the type of luxury resort our company strives to run.”
The statement said House of Blues has increased its compliance and training procedures and advised employees its will not tolerate inappropriate conduct.
“House of Blues is a committed, long-time partner at Mandalay Bay,” the statement said. “We are working closely with Foundation Room management to ensure their operations meet the standards we expect of them.
