The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) has voted unanimously to add Kendrick Laronte Weatherspoon, a convicted felon and sex trafficker, to the state’s List of Excluded Persons, also known as the “Black Book.” Weatherspoon will now be banned from state casinos.
The decision set a new precedent for the NGC, as Weatherspoon is now the first person to be added to the list for anything other than casino cheating or having connections to organized crime. According to James Taylor, chief of enforcement for the NGC, a total of 71 individuals have been added to the list since its inception, and the recent ruling was the first addition in over three years.
When discussing whether or not to add Weatherspoon to the list, commissioners were unsure if it was a slippery slope, in the sense that there are far too many criminals, especially in Las Vegas, to consider adding them all.
However, Captain Fred Haas of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told the board that he is “not trying to go after the 300 or 400 a year that are doing this. What I’m trying to go after is those that are very sophisticated in how they do this.” He added that his department is most concerned with “the ones who are continual, year after year.”
Haas added that there are six or seven other offenders he feels should be considered for exclusion in the future.
After representatives from the Nevada District Attorney’s Office presented Weatherspoon’s laundry list of felony convictions in the state, including counts of drug possession, firearm possession, coercion and sex trafficking, Commissioner Ogonna Brown said that he was “a prime candidate for exclusion.”
Haas emphasized to the board that trafficking is a serious issue that needs to be addressed in the casino industry, and Weatherspoon’s exclusion may be a good first step in deterring such behavior.
