September 25
It has been announced by Station
Casinos Inc. that they will pay some
$2.4 million in fines, including the
costs of investigation, in order to
settle a complaint from the state Gaming
Control Board.
Today, in Las Vegas, the Nevada
Gaming Commission was scheduled for a
consideration of the deal.
A settlement document that was
reportedly signed by the three Gaming
Control Board members states that the
company would pay $1.5 million in fines,
plus a $700,000 compensatory payment,
and just over $173,600 in costs and
expenses brought-on by the board during
the long-term investigation. The
investigation is said to have started
back in April of 2003.
If approved, this will be the
second-highest fine demanded by the
state for the violation of a
money-laundering complaint.
The largest complaint was paid by MGM
Mirage in 2003. It is documented that
their former company compliance
officer did not file many ongoing
financial reports. In that case, the MGM
Mirage paid approximately $5 million in
that case.
As far as the Station issue is
concerned, Control Board investigators
noted that the situation was similar to
MGM Mirage's 2003 case. In the
settlement, the board realized that the
alleged violations in the complaint were
administrative and did not show any
intent on the company's part to
intentionally commit such violations.
They also stated that there did not
appear to be any money laundering.
The incident began as a series of
alleged irregularities in reporting at
Station's Santa Fe Station property. The
company notified the Control Board and
began their own audits internally and
the investigation finally led to
reporting problems at the company's
Sunset Station and Fiesta casino
locations.
Station compiled a report that was
then
reviewed by investigators from the
Board. The company then hired gaming
attorney to blueprint the settlement
with a Deputy Attorney General from the
Attorney General's Offices' Gaming
Division.
