Nevada Gaming Commission has heavily fined one of its licensees while agreeing to a hefty tax refund for another. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Fine and a refund

The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) has started the week by heavily fining one of its licensees and agreeing to a hefty tax refund for another.

failing to allow its agent access to a theater

On Monday, the NGC hit Northern Nevada’s biggest casino with $250,000 penalty for denying one of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB)’s agents access. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the NGC fined Grand Sierra Resort and Casino holding brand MEI-GSR Holdings LLC for failing to allow its agent access to a theater in the Reno resort owned by the Las Vegas Meruelo Group.

Meruelo had the opportunity to challenge the complaint issued by the NGCB in October, but opted not to. 

Showing its nicer side, the NGC agreed on Monday to refund the Craig Estey-owned slot machine chain Dotty’s over $3m in overpaid taxes.

Happy tax story

Dotty’s is a chain of 41 licensed casinos and slot machine parlors in Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and Illinois operated by Estey-owned Nevada Restaurant Services, Inc (NRSI).

Dotty’s parent brand originally submitted its settlement claim for overpaid taxes to the NGC asking for a refund of “$3,120,197.28 plus interest of $222,744.12.” 

interest was accruing at a rate of about $446 a day”

In August, however, the NGC refused to pay the interest. It stated NRSI “took so long to file the claim and the interest was accruing at a rate of about $446 a day.”

While NRSI agreed to drop its interest claim, it subsequently discovered that it was eligible to file a claim for “a refund for an additional two years of tax overpayments.”

NRSI is therefore ditching the interest claim and seeking an additional $1.8m tax refund from the NGC. According to media reports, NRSI’s overpayments came from “not properly deducting wagered cashable electronic promotion amounts from gross revenue of $46.9m,” a rebate it was entitled to. 

In hot water again

Just as Dotty’s legal team is getting more familiar with the NGC, so is Grand Sierra Resort’s. The Commission’s $250,000 fine on Monday is for the same agent entry violation Grand Sierra committed in January 2021.

According to the settlement stipulation on Monday, however, the latest barred NGCB agent was denied entry to Grand Sierra for about six minutes. The agent was eventually allowed to enter the theater armed, but opted to leave after a “discussion with security officers.”

The NGC asked Senior Deputy Attorney General Michael Somps why the NGCB agent was trying to access the resort’s theater. In response, Somps prefaced that: “board agents have access to all portions of the premises of a gaming establishment.” 

Somps added that what happens in non-gambling areas has an impact on Nevada’s overall reputation and that of its gaming industry. The DA cited disciplinary measures taken by the NGCB against licensees “for events that happened in their nightclubs, which was off the gaming floor.”