Riverside Resort in Laughlin Fined $500K for Roughing Up Customers

The Nevada Gaming Commission has ordered the Riverside Resort and Casino to pay a $500,000 fine after finding the property’s security staff guilty of using excessive force on at least two occasions.

Located in the southern Clark County town of Laughlin, the 1,405-room Riverside Resort and Casino features an 89,106 sq ft casino hosting approximately 1,200 slots alongside more than 30 gaming tables. 

Opened by American entertainments magnate Don Laughlin in 1966, the Nevada property has gradually grown to additionally incorporate a six-screen cinema, a 740-space RV park, a gym, a family-friendly pool, several restaurants and a classic automobile and motorcycle museum.

Intense Instances

Las Vegas Review-Journal reported a first regrettable incident had occurred in July of 2022 when a patron refused to leave an area where a slot drop was taking place. This male customer is said to have required hospital treatment for a suspected broken leg after being escorted outside by security staff, handcuffed and pushed to the ground face-first.

The newspaper explained a second unfortunate episode the very next month had involved security at Riverside Resort and Casino detaining an employee for allegedly smoking marijuana while on shift. Despite a lack of sufficient proof, this worker was later reportedly thrown to the ground and punched five times after he had attempted to leave peaceably. 

Things got even worse as the man was subsequently said to have been handcuffed and put in a holding cell, where he lost consciousness for 18 minutes as a result of hitting his head against a metal wall.

Ominous Omission

Police arrested the four security members who had been on duty during this latter confrontation on suspicion of the felony charge of coercion with physical force as well as the gross misdemeanor allegation of false imprisonment. However, these accusations were later dismissed on the condition the guards kept out of trouble.

This is said to have prompted Riverside Resort and Casino to establish a special review committee to address the pair of incidents and come up with ways of preventing similar actions from occurring in the future. Nevertheless, the facility purportedly failed to notify the Nevada Gaming Commission of these events due to its belief of no such requirement exists in current licensing conditions or statutes.

Designated Decision

In its unanimous ruling, the Nevada Gaming Commission ordered the Riverside Resort and Casino to pay the $500,000 penalty within two working days and introduce an enhanced training program employing ‘an experienced, independent person to administer and provide new outside security training’. 

The determination also obliged the facility to revise procedures attached to its ‘slot department drop team guest relations policy’ so as to ‘better address’ customer interactions during accounting checks.

The Nevada Gaming Commission further explained the four Riverside Resort and Casino security staff involved in the second offending incident had been fired in 2022, with a fifth reassigned to a non-gaming position. 

Despite describing the affair as ‘very serious’, the regulator nonetheless went on to acknowledge the seriousness of the facility’s earlier remediation efforts while noting that this was the first time it had ever been disciplined for this type of infringement.