Robert Saucier, chairman and president of Galaxy Gaming, Inc., agreed to withdraw his bid to renew his Nevada license and send the application back to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which has agreed to allow the executive to re-submit later.
The decision came after eight hours of hearings over two days, in which the three-member gaming board questioned Saucier on his past licensing issues—including a dispute with the California Gambling Control Board, which decided in 2013 to uphold the ruling of an administrative law judge that Saucier was unsuitable for a license in that state.
The California decision centered on Saucier’s claim on his application that he was a graduate of University of Nevada, Reno, after taking courses at Western Nevada Community College. Before the Nevada board last week, former Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Peter Bernhard, who is serving as Saucier’s attorney in Nevada, told the gaming board that the California incident is the result of Saucier’s being “just sloppy” in filling out the applications, as he hates filling out forms.
“He had no intent to deceive anybody,” Bernhard told the gaming board of Saucier. “He thought the classes transferred over to UNR from Western.”
The board also questioned Saucier about his hiring of accountants who had been indicted or convicted of crimes, criticizing him for a lack of due diligence in those decisions.
Saucier agreed to withdraw the application to avoid a possible finding by the board that he was unsuitable, because that allows him to re-submit, and he has said he is confident the California decision will be reversed soon. Taking this option allows him to re-submit without the California issue complicating matters.
Galaxy Gaming has side bets and other products on 583 table games in 82 Nevada casinos.
