Las Vegas

Nevada Gaming Commission Changes Rule for Recruiting Whales

Posted on: February 23, 2024, 12:21h.

Last updated on: February 23, 2024, 12:30h.

Written by

Corey Levitan Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas...
Click for more

The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) has changed the rules governing how licensed independent agents bring high rollers into the state’s casinos. Commissioners voted unanimously on Thursday to approve several amendments to Regulation 25, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which broke this story.

A.I. responds to a request to depict a casino agent walking a whale into a casino. (Image: ChatGPT)

The main change no longer requires casinos to submit annual reports to the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). Instead, they must merely keep records of their agents and their activities — which the board can inspect upon request during random audits — for a period of five years.

Those records must include the date that an agent enters each contract, when the contract ends, and how much the agent is paid by the casino.

This change was requested by the casino owners who complained that the annual paperwork was a burdensome administrative task made worse by its February 15 deadline, smack in the middle of their recruitment season between the Super Bowl and Lunar New Year.

Before the annual reports, Nevada casino owners were required to file quarterly reports.

According to the R-J, approximately 300 independent agents are registered with Nevada to recruit high rollers. Some work for multiple casinos.

Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas.

Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city’s history. (For “Fear and Loafing,” he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.)

Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post.

Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook.

Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.