Red Rock Casino and its owner and Station Casinos face sanctions in Nevada after being accused of accepting hundreds of illicit sports wagers over a three-year period.
In a two-count complaint filed by the Nevada Gambling Control Board (NGCB), the regulator said the businesses accepted approximately 348 wagers via the Stadium Live mobile sports betting platform for events whose outcomes had already been determined.
System errors that allowed a total of 181 bets to be placed erroneously were identified in both 2018 and 2019. However, despite repeated warnings from NGCB, 167 further cases were still able to occur between March and May of this year.
NGCB and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford have now called on the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) to take disciplinary action against owner and operator Station Casinos and licensees Red Rock LLC and Red Rock Casino Resort Spa. They have requested that the respondents be fined a monetary sum for each separate violation, and for action to be taken against their licenses.
Red Rock first made NGCB aware of the technical issue back in 2018. It blamed a computer malfunction caused by “insufficient server memory” within its Stadium Live sports wagering program. NGCB issued a regulation violation letter in response and did the same the following year when a similar error occurred. The operator refunded all the contentious wagers.
At the end of 2019, the NGCB ordered the operators to take action to ensure such malfunctions could not happen again.
However, in March 2021, Red Rock reported another malfunction of its Stadium Live system which led to approximately 167 sports wagers being accepted for events whose outcomes had already been determined. Again, the wagers were all refunded.
The NGCB said in its submission to the NGC: “Respondents have not maintained sufficient control and monitoring processes concerning their mobile sports wagering application to prevent incidents which reflect or tend to reflect poorly on the reputation of gaming in the State of Nevada and/or act as a detriment to the development of the gaming industry and/or reflect or tend to reflect discredit upon the State of Nevada or the gaming industry.
“Respondents have had multiple opportunities to ensure their mobile sports wagering application operates in compliance with the Gaming Control Act. However, respondents have failed to do so. This failure has repeatedly caused respondents to accept ostensible wagers from patrons on events whose outcome had already been determined.”
A hearing date for the NGC has not been determined, while Station Casinos and the NGCB can still reach a stipulated settlement to avoid a hearing.