Venetian is latest to succumb to Bowyer AML offences in Las Vegas

Convicted illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer is continuing to wreak havoc on the Las Vegas Strip long after his exclusion from state casinos, as the Venetian has agreed to a $7.2 million fine for Bowyer-related anti-money laundering violations.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board filed the stipulated settlement agreement as well as an accompanying four-count complaint on 25 June. News of the fine was first reported by the Nevada Independent.

This latest Bowyer-related AML investigation is nearly identical to those involving Resorts World Las Vegas, MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment last year. Including the Venetian, all four failed to properly substantiate Bowyer’s source of funds. Additionally, all four subsequently failed to ban him despite having suspicions or, in some cases, direct knowledge of his illegal bookmaking activities.

Bowyer pleaded guilty to charges related to money laundering and filing false tax returns in August 2024 and has since been released from federal prison. He was added to Nevada’s “black book”, or banned patrons list, in April, an inclusion that may prohibit him from entering a statewide casino for life.

According to the complaint, Bowyer gambled at the Venetian from 1999-2024, though the investigation centred primarily on the period of 2019-2024. That window spans the casino’s current owner, Apollo Global Management, as well as its previous owner Las Vegas Sands. Apollo purchased the operations of the Venetian from Sands for $2.25 billion in 2021, with the transaction closing in early 2022.

Representatives from the Venetian and NGCB indicated they won’t comment until the matter is heard by the Nevada Gaming Commission 20 August. Sands declined to comment.

Venetian admits wrongdoing

The stipulated settlement agreement lists the $7.2 million fine as well as seven AML-related licence conditions agreed to by the Venetian. These include additional employee trainings, periodic reviews of its AML protocols and frequent collaboration with the board. The casino’s “AML policy shall be revised and enhanced as appropriate and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations”, the settlement says.

The inspiration for the fine amount appears to be related to the casino’s profits off of Bowyer. Per the complaint, Bowyer made some 30 trips to Venetian from 2019-2021, depositing $22.3 million and losing $3.6 million during that time. His play continued at a lower level after that period, but the $7.2 million figure would be a doubling of the $3.6 million profit.

When Caesars was fined $7.8 million last year, regulators explained it was a tripling of the company’s $2.6 million profits from the bookmaker. This was done, the board said, to dispel any notion of companies’ ill-gotten gains exceeding their penalties.

Notably, the Venetian admitted to “each and every allegation set forth in the complaint”, the settlement says. MGM and Caesars also admitted wrongdoing in their Bowyer cases, while Resorts World did not.

Host had ‘actual knowledge’ of Bowyer’s bookmaking

The four counts against the Venetian related to Bowyer include:

• Failure to establish Bowyer’s source of funds
• Failure to ban him from the property
• Failure by Bowyer’s host to report him to management
• Failure to conduct an investigation

On Friday, Bowyer responded to the settlement in a video posted on his Facebook account.

“First of all, let me say this, I accepted responsibility. I stood before a federal judge and paid my prison sentence,” Bowyer said in the post. “I don’t make any excuses, I don’t blame anyone else for my decisions.”

If the settlement against the Venetian is accepted, the four casinos will pay a combined $34 million in fines by Nevada.

“Their own anti-money-laundering compliance team(s) reviewed my finances, found the red flags, and let me keep betting anyway,” Bowyer added on the casinos.

Source of funds concerns

Despite frequenting the casino for nearly 20 years from 1999-2016, investigators said the issues at hand began in earnest when Bowyer returned to the property in April 2019. By that time, he was one of the leading illegal bookmakers in the US, and a well-known high-roller throughout Las Vegas. Bowyer’s casino host allegedly notified management at that time that he had “some concern” relating to Bowyer’s source of funds.

An internal review in May of that year dispelled those concerns, saying it found “no information which prevents us from continuing a business relationship” with Bowyer. Regulators said this represented the first of several “instances of failures of control within the Venetian where information of suspicious or illegal activity in relation to Bowyer was disregarded”.

The complaint also alleges that Bowyer’s host had “actual knowledge” of his bookmaking activities. Bowyer reportedly asked the host in 2019 and 2020 for potential referrals to his illegal operation and pledged to “take care” of the host in return.

The bookmaker’s relationship with hosts has been well-documented throughout the various investigations — in the Resorts World case, that casino hired Bowyer’s wife, Nicole, to be his personal host, resulting in further penalties.

Warnings about funds never heeded

Throughout his time frequenting the Venetian, Bowyer provided several false accounts of his source of funds, including connections to a synthetic turf company, a medical company and other sham wagering and real estate businesses.

“From 2019 to 2024, the Venetian researched the employment information provided by Bowyer and was regularly unable to verify the information or noted that employment information was inconsistent,” the complaint reads.

The casino even commissioned an enhanced due diligence report from a third-party in 2021, which flagged several concerns. This report “noted Bowyer’s 2011 bankruptcy, a 2012 monetary judgment against Bowyer in favor of a Las Vegas casino, and that Bowyer’s primary assets consisted of real estate”. Additionally, the third-party “assessed Bowyer’s source of wealth as a significant concern and identified a lack of concrete public record information about Bowyer’s source of income or current financial standing”, the complaint says.

It wasn’t until October 2023, when the Venetian learned Bowyer was a person of interest in the Resorts World investigation, that the casino stopped taking his action. He was then formally banned in March 2024, months before his guilty plea in federal court.

Jess Marquez

Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.