Venetian Las Vegas Must Pay $850 Thousand to Settle Religious Discrimination Lawsuit

• The Venetian will pay $850K to settle a lawsuit alleging it failed to accommodate workers’ religious beliefs
• The suit also alleged Venetian retaliated against workers who opposed religious discrimination
• The suit was brought by the US EEOC following worker complaints

The Venetian Resort has agreed to pay $850K to settle a religious discrimination and retaliation lawsuit. The suit was filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) before the Venetian was sold by Las Vegas Sands to Apollo Global Management for $2.25 billion in 2022.

The EEOC, which announced the settlement Wednesday, charged the Venetian with violating federal law by refusing to accommodate the sincerely held religious beliefs of a class of employees, which included a diversity of faiths as outlined in the complaint.

The EEOC’s suit further alleged that the Venetian retaliated against employees who opposed these acts of religious discrimination. In some cases, according to the suit, the denial of accommodations led to discipline, denial of promotion opportunities, and discharge.

The law protects the rights of workers in our pluralistic society to live out their various faiths in the workplace,” EEOC acting chair Andrea Lucas said in a statement. “As this case shows, reasonable accommodation might look like, among other things, allowing certain days off for Sabbatarians or Buddhists and allowing beards for Orthodox Christians. It also means not punishing anyone who speaks

In addition to monetary relief, the settlement requires the training of all Venetian employees, managers, and supervisors on employee rights and employers’ obligations regarding religious accommodations.

The Venetian must also hire an independent third party to monitor to assist with the review and revision of the policies and complaint procedures, and keep track the the resort’s compliance for three years.