Las Vegas is still known for its glitz and nonstop action, but not all the attention is positive. Even as the city sees fewer visitors, cases of identity fraud at casinos, nightclubs, and dispensaries are climbing.
Casinos Took the Hardest Hit
IDScan.net, the “leading adaptive AI identity verification platform focusing on ID fraud prevention, age verification, and access management for security and compliance”, looked at more than 1.4 million ID verification transactions between 2024 and 2025.
The results were disturbing: attempts to bypass identification checks jumped more than 50% year-over-year. Casinos were hit hardest, with fraud rising from 1.22% in 2024 to 2.33% this year.
“We’re seeing that most of the fraud happening right now is from what you might call traditional ID fraud, where people are using counterfeit, borrowed, or even deepfaked IDs to bypass age verification systems,” said Jimmy Roussel, chief executive officer of IDScan.net.
“What’s changing is the scale and sophistication. Fraudsters are getting more strategic in taking advantage of leaner teams and slower nights to bypass security processes. The data makes clear that businesses can’t afford to scale back their ID verification processes, even when traffic is down.”
According to data from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the 955 reported cases of identity theft as of September 28 nearly match the 1,202 cases reported last year.
Underage Gambling, a Burning Matter
Underage gambling remains a widespread problem across the U.S. In Pennsylvania, regulators have been cracking down. In July, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board fined Rivers Casino Philadelphia $30,000 after a 17-year-old male used another person’s ID to bring an underage female onto casino grounds for three consecutive days.
A 19-year-old woman also slipped in without showing ID and was caught trying to enroll in the casino’s loyalty program. Similarly, Valley Forge Casino Resort was fined $30,000 last month after a 13-year-old accessed the gaming floor.
Virginia saw its own major case last year, when Rivers Casino Portsmouth received a $545,000 fine from the Virginia Lottery for repeated underage violations.
Investigations point to understaffed security and insufficient surveillance as common factors. Even as Las Vegas works to recover from dips in tourism, ID fraud and underage gambling show no signs of slowing.