The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) has joined the ongoing federal money laundering investigation involving former casino executive Scott Sibella, illegal bookmaker Wayne Nix and multiple Las Vegas Strip casinos.
The NGCB’s involvement was confirmed in an investigative report from the Nevada Current April 22, citing anonymous sources who have reportedly been contacted by NGCB investigators in recent weeks about the matter.
In early 2023, the board cleared Sibella, who was president of Resorts World Las Vegas at the time, of any wrongdoing in relation to claims he had allowed Nix to operate out of and gamble at the MGM Grand when he was president of that resort from 2017-19, despite knowing that he was involved in illegal bookmaking.
The NGCB concluded that the claims were “unsubstantiated,” but last August, federal investigators from the Criminal Division of the IRS, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and Homeland Security said otherwise, and issued a subpoena to Resorts World for transaction records and other documents.
Sibella was fired, and eventually entered into a plea agreement January 25 for violating the Bank Secrecy Act by not reporting large cash transactions from Nix at MGM, totaling $4,079,830 during his tenure.
The MGM Grand and the Cosmopolitan, also frequented by Nix, entered non-prosecution agreements and paid $7.45 million in fines between them.
Sibella’s sentencing is scheduled for May 8, while Nix’s sentencing has been postponed multiple times, indicating that there is still more to unpack from the investigation.
According to court filings, Sibella “didn’t ask” where the money came from and “didn’t want to know because of my position…If we know, we can’t allow them to gamble.”
The scandal has reflected poorly on the NGCB, which has remained noticeably silent on the investigation except for a statement from Chairman Kirk Hendrick after Sibella’s guilty plea that said the board “has been monitoring the situation, and will ensure that all individuals and entities involved in Nevada’s gaming industry are held to the highest standards.”
No comment was given for the Current report.
According to one of the outlet’s sources, the NGCB investigators are composed of “five two-man teams and each team is investigating two to three properties.”
The source also told the Current that the agents “are working in cooperation with the U.S. Attorney and Criminal Division of the IRS in Las Vegas, and with the U.S. Attorney’s Office out of California, specifically Jeff Mitchell.”
Mitchell is heavily involved in the scandal, as he is the U.S. Attorney who recently charged Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara with stealing $16 million from the star baseball player to pay for gambling debts owed to Matthew Bowyer, another illegal bookmaker tied to the widening investigation.
The board is also reportedly digging into Bowyer’s connections and former hosts throughout Las Vegas, but Richard Schuetz, a longtime casino executive and former California regulator, said that much of this recent work appears to be just an attempt to uphold its reputation.
“I believe they are doing a little cosmetic work,” he told the Current. “They’re having to make a little effort to save face.”
