Home / Poker News February 2014 / Reno Casino Fined $1 Million by NGC
Reno Casino Fined $1 Million by NGC
Posted by: Jo Martin - Sun, 2014-02-23 14:41
Nevada has always been an angler’s paradise besides being the gambling and entertainment capital of the world, and apparently these days, crooks and anglers come in all shapes and sizes. The owners of the Peppermill Casino in Reno have apparently decided that stealing proprietary information from their competitors and then using that information and creating a “reset” key to be used by one of their employees on the slot machines of their competitors was a great idea. Things turned sour for them though as they were found out and promptly hit with a $1 million fine by the State’s gaming regulators.
The size of the actual fine was the subject of some hot debate, and Attorney Frank Schreck, the representative of the Peppermill Casino, did his best to keep it as low as possible, by pointing it out that while it was a stupid mistake on the owners’ part indeed, the move was not considered to be a criminal one by the Washoe County DA.
Eventually, the decision regarding the fine was passed 3-0, as Commissioner Joe Brown and Chairman Peter Bernhard abstained from voting.
Peppermill Casino President William Paganetti accepted culpability for the incident, saying he was sorry and that it was “inappropriate” for his side to be involved in such a scheme.
According to Schreck, even though the Peppermill Casino obtained a wealth of information through the scheme, like event logs, hold percentages, play history and game configuration, none of the data was ever used to gain any sort of advantage over their competitors. The Attorney said his clients merely used to the data to “satisfy their curiosity”.
The fine, although rather substantial indeed, was not designed to exact any sort of a significant financial toll on the perpetrators, but rather to send a message to others who may consider resorting to such practices in the future.
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