Bob Nersesian - Beat the Players: Casinos, Cops, and the Game Inside the Game

copyright 2006, 2011 by Robert A. Nersesian

Inquiries should be addressed to Pi Yee Press, 4855 W. Nevso Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89103-3787.

ISBN 978-0-935926-45-3

cover by Joanne LaFord of JOW Graphics

Casino security guards often are ignorant of basic principles of relevant laws. They truly believe they somehow have more authority than other private citizens. They dont. If I invited my neighbor to a barbecue, then decided I didnt want him there, so I knocked him to the ground, handcuffed him, dragged him into a back room of my house, went through his pockets and his wallet, photographed him, threatened further violence against him, forcibly held him there for a while, then physically shoved him off my property, it is likely I would be prosecuted for any number of crimes, as I should be. Yet casino security guards do exactly that.

It may not seem like a big deal until you personally become a victim. If you become a victim, likely your view will quickly change.

Adhoc, a lawyer who posts on BJ21.com says: They have no more authority to order, detain, restrain, arrest, investigate or conduct any other activity than any other non-law enforcement individual. They are simply employees who legally carry weapons.

Casino security guards who abuse patrons always do so with impunity. Authorities refuse to take action when casino security guards have committed crimes. The refusal of police to arrest casino security guards who have gone too far, and the refusal of the district attorney to prosecute them, is disgusting. The Gaming Control Board has thus far not penalized any casino whose security guards have abused patrons.

Casinos want to spend as little as possible on security. In court cases, guards admitted that they had received no training regarding issues of probable cause, detention, use of force, etc. If they dont know how to react to a particular situation, they often respond with brute force.

Casinos encourage or at least tolerate this behavior, and also do so with impunity except for occasional civil settlements or jury awards. This is where attorney Bob Nersesian enters the picture. Though it would be more lucrative for him to work for the casino side, Nersesian represents abused casino patrons.

Bob Nersesian and his wife Thea Sankiewicz work as Nevada attorneys representing casino customers, mainly professional gamblers. (Bob says: This book is not a solicitation for business. We are extremely busy and presently not seeking new clients.)

This book contains many quotes from laws, court cases, depositions, etc. Such items are in blue, so as to distinguish them from the words of the author.

Some of the names of individuals have been changed for use in this book.

Thanks to Don Schlesinger for catching many typos in the first printing of the book. Any remaining typos in the authors words probably belong to new material that was added after Don looked at the book. (Grammatical errors in quotes from laws, court decisions, and the like have not been corrected.)

Nevada hates you, and merely tolerates you as a cost of doing business. While this is not news, many readers of this book suffered under some of the events described below. Professional advantage gamblers, and sometimes gamblers who are merely skilled or lucky, incur rousting, jailing, slander, handcuffing, and banishment for merely plying their legal trade or sometimes just enjoying a night out. This book presents a primer on what to expect, and suggests some courses of action when faced with the overreaching of the casinos and their sometime willing minions found in the ranks of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (referred to as Metro throughout this book) or enforcement agents of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (referred to as Gaming throughout this book).

When I first started writing this book, in 2003, I held a conviction that the courts were the bastion of justice and the guardian of individual rights. No doubt this attitude arose through my schooling and experience, and I had never dreamed that there was a special class of individuals. Even after writing the foregoing, I still believe this to be the case.

But courts are run by men and women, and are, therefore, imperfect. And these imperfect men and women hold power bordering on the absolute when it comes to determining the scope of the authority of a gaming licensee and the police coming to their assistance. Still, over dozens of incidents, it has been rare in the extreme that a judge has prevented an advantage gambler from ultimately placing the core issues surrounding his complaints before a jury of citizens. If the fix was in, as I have been repeatedly told by members of the gambling community, then jury determinations would be unobtainable. The truth of the matter is that they are not.

As mentioned, however, there are exceptions. The most egregious is presented in the determination by the Nevada Supreme Court that, in the process of an investigation, police officers possess discretion to intentionally fabricate evidence under Nevada law. Curiously, despite such a conclusion in one unpublished decision, this ruling has essentially been reversed in a published decision not involving a gambler (Jordan v. State). The next time such an issue arises, it may well turn out differently for the gambler.

The overriding message that is taken from this book should be that there are rights and protections, and choosing to gamble does not strip a person of these rights and protections. These rights and protections, as with all intangible concepts, are always in a state of flux. When a gaming licensee flexes its muscle gained through juice, connections, tax-paying status, or whatever other method allows it to believe that it is a privileged citizen, the patron, whether recreational gambler, high-roller, or advantage player, must insist on his rights and must pursue vindication. Absent such vigilant activity, the fluctuations in the protections and rights will ebb towards absolute casino power, and may eventually cascade in that direction.

If this happens, then another truism about human nature will raise its ugly head. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And if Nevadas gaming industry truly becomes institutionally saturated with corruption, then the citizens will either be enslaved by the business interests, or the guests will stop coming, or both. Thus, it truly is incumbent upon you readers to keep and protect your chosen way of life and recreation, to meet oppression head-on through legal and calm means, and to assure that Nevada or whatever gaming state is involved remains a government of laws and not a government of men.

Throughout the book the reader will find anecdotal incidents based upon true occurrences, although oftentimes the names will be changed, as stated on Dragnet, in order to protect the innocent. There will also be a peppering of law addressing the scope of gaming regulation concerning patrons. You may find that the level of protection and rights granted the gambler astounds you. Likely, the ignorance of these rights by the very persons sworn to protect the gambler will leave you aghast. It does me.

Lastly, nothing in this book should be viewed as legal advice. Although an appendix of law and commentary follows the main text, the commentary is my opinion, only, and you should hire counsel in your jurisdiction if you seek any definitive statements or law upon which you intend to rely for any reason. Moreover, as the law changes so regularly, the reader is further cautioned that it would not be reasonable to rely on any legal statements or opinions found in this work. Simply, any efficacy of any position could be destroyed the day after this book is published.

Still, enjoy.