California Administrative Law Judge Theresa M. Brehl has ruled against granting the owner of the Lake Elsinore Casino a permanent license to operate. Brehl’s ruling, made last month, came to light last week.
The casino is owned by the Kingston Group, which has been linked to a polygamous sect in Utah. The group includes co-owners and cousins Ted and Joseph Kingston. The judge left open the possibility that the license could be transferred to another member of the family.
The polygamous sect linked to the Kingston Group has been accused of forcing teenage girls to marry. Some call it an organized crime family.
Ted and Joseph Kingston and the late Clyde Kingston applied for a gaming license in 1999 and received a temporary license. In 2008 state regulators recommended that the state deny them a license and in 2016 made the same recommendation. They have recommended denying the license because of the family’s longstanding refusal to disclose required information or to keep business records in a normal manner acceptable to the state. They point out that a “key employee” of the casino has a felony conviction, also a violation of state law.
Joseph Kingston, citing poor health from diabetes and other ailments, wants to transfer his interest to Chad Benson, who has been the casino’s chief operations officer for four years. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Benson is also a member of the Kingston clan and a cousin of the co-owners.
Joseph Kingston wrote to the judge in 2016, “I asked for nothing in compensation as I do not believe my shares have much value, and it is more important for me to do away with this large amount of financial obligation and allow me to free up my portfolio for my family.”
The casino owners claim they are being victimized because the state refused to complete its investigation of their 1999 license application. They also claim the regulators didn’t follow an order by the Gambling Control Commission to commence an administrative hearing on the matter in 2009.
Judge Brehl was highly critical of the state’s Bureau of Gambling Control for its handling of this case, which has been unresolved for nearly a decade. Through this period, the Kingstons operated the casino off Interstate 15 without a permanent license.
Brehl cited the “lengthy and unexplained 20-year delay and inaction, while (the bureau) continued to renew the casino’s provisional license.” She said it “undercuts any (state) argument” for revoking the license, which expires at the end of this year.
Brehl wrote, “While the bureau’s delay and inaction between 1999 and late 2015 may not entitle the casino to equitable relief, the manner in which the bureau handled its communications with the casino and its owners during 2016 warrants allowing the casino and its owners an opportunity to submit additional information to continue to pursue licensure.”
She concluded, “In order to avoid the fundamental injustice of an outright and immediate denial of the casino’s license application, Joseph Kingston shall be afforded an opportunity to seek approval of a transfer of his interests to Mr. Benson, and Mr. Benson shall be allowed to submit an application for licensure.”
The California Gambling Control Commission is not bound by Brehl’s ruling. It has 70 days to accept or reject the ruling or craft a deal of its own. The casino owners can appeal either decision if they choose.
The Lake Elsinore Casino, once known as the Sahara Dunes, is a commercial card club with 22 tables, an OTB parlor, dining and a hotel. It employs 275 people, making it one of the largest employers in Lake Elsinore. It has operated on a year-to-year basis for more than 20 years with a provisional license.
The Kingston brothers took majority control of the company in 1991. They each own 47.5 percent of the casino and co-own the management company that owns the other 5 percent. Press reports link them to the Kingston Group, aka “the Order” a sect of the Mormon Church. The church at large has not condoned polygamy for more than 150 years.
Besides owning controlling interest of the casino, the Kingston Group also owns pawn shops, a grocery store and a gun manufacturer. In 2018 the Salt Lake City Tribune ran a story claiming that since 1997 the Kingston Group has held at least 65 weddings where the brides were between 15 and 17 years of age. It quoted former members who said they had been forced to marry as teenagers.
A 2011 Rolling Stone article put the group’s net worth at $300 million and quoted the Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff as claiming, “I strongly believe they are an organized-crime family.”
Members of the Kingston family are under federal indictment in Utah for what prosecutors call a tax fraud scheme that made about $511 million. Brothers Jacob and Isaiah Kingston have pleaded not guilty to charges of fraudulently collecting renewable energy tax credits.
