Nevada Fines Riverside Casino for Excessive Use of Force by Security Staff

The Nevada Gaming Commission has issued a fine of $500,000 to Riverside Resort & Casino for two cases of excessive use of force by the Laughlin property’s security staff. Most of the people involved in the violence have been since fired.

As outlined in a complaint filed by the casino, the first case occurred in July 2022 when a Riverside security officer escorted a patron who had refused to vacate an area where a slot drop was underway. Once outside, the guard pushed the man to the ground face-first and handcuffed him. As a result, the patron sustained a leg injury and had to be transported to a hospital.

A month later, four Riverside security workers detained an employee who had allegedly smoked marijuana on shift, despite lacking sufficient proof to suspect that. The employee was later told he was fired and, when he attempted to leave, was thrown to the ground, punched five times, handcuffed and put in a holding cell. The imprisoned man later hit his head on the metal cell wall and lost consciousness.

As seen on video surveillance footage, the latter employee hadn’t used any force at all.

The Property Took Measures and Changed Its Mindset

The security officers from the second case were arrested for coercion with physical force and false imprisonment. Their former charge was later amended to battery but the charges were eventually dismissed.

John Michela, senior deputy attorney general for the Nevada Gaming Commission, noted that the allegations in the complaint are “very serious.” However, he acknowledged Riverside’s remediation efforts and the casino’s desire to not let something like that happen again.

Riverside’s management acknowledged the two cases and pointed out that four employees have since been fired, while another one was reassigned. Donald J. Laughlin Gaming Trust, the company behind Riverside Resort & Casino, added that the security director who hired the security officers in the two cases had been terminated. The company added that it has raised its wages to get a better quality security guard.

Riverside Resort & Casino attorney Greg Giordano, asserted that the casino had no regulatory responsibility to report the incidents but still did. The regulator, however, disagreed saying that it absolutely should have been reported, considering the fact that one patron was knocked unconscious and another was hospitalized.  

According to Commissioner Ogonna Brown, business judgment should “compel these types of incidents to be reported to the board.”

For reference, this is the first time Riverside Resort & Casino has been disciplined in its almost six decades in business.