Resorts World Las Vegas names new management while the NGCB is looking into the company.

Resorts World Las Vegas names new management while the NGCB is looking into the company.

 As Resorts World Las Vegas gets ready for the next step in a money laundering investigation by Nevada officials, it has named a new CEO and set up a new board of directors.
 The building of Resorts World Las Vegas
 Both of the news came out in a press statement on December 5.  Jim Murren, who has been chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts for a long time, will be in charge of the new board.  Murren is also the head of the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) in the UAE right now.

 Among the other board members are:

 AG Burnett is a partner at McDonald Carano and used to be the chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). Michelle DiTondo is a senior at Avion Consulting. Kong Han Tan is the president and COO of Genting Berhad, the company that owns Resorts World.
 For Resorts World, Alex Dixon was also named as its new CEO and to the board.  Dixon was CEO of Q Casino & Resort and the Dubuque Racing Association in Dubuque, Iowa, before. He was born and raised in Las Vegas.

 Of note, Murren, Dixon, and DiTondo all worked at MGM Resorts around the same time in the late 2010s, so they all have ties to the company.  The board members started their new jobs on December 4, and Dixon is set to start on January 16.  In the news release, Genting CEO Kok Thay Lim said that he is sure the new leadership "will help drive the company forward in pursuing our strategic goals for years to come."

 Resorts World made $177 million (£139 million/€167.6 million) in sales and $16 million in EBITDA in the third quarter.  Those amounts were 18% and 68% less than the previous quarter, respectively.

 This announcement comes days before the NGCB's answer is due.
 The new leaders were chosen at a very important time for Resorts World.  The casino is being accused of laundering money, and the NGCB has filed a 12-count lawsuit against it.  You need to give a written answer by or before December 9th.

 The 31-page complaint, which was first filed on August 15, says that Resorts World let in "persons with suspected and actual ties to illegal bookmaking" and organised crime.  The board said this showed a "overall lack of control."

 Because of this, the board has told the Nevada Gaming Commission to take official action against the casino.  This could be done by giving fines, taking away licenses, or putting state control over the land.

 Sibella Bowyer is involved in a crime
 Mathew Bowyer is at the heart of the scandal. He is a California-based illegal bookie who has bet millions of dollars at Resorts World since it opened in 2021.  Bowyer did what Ippei Mizuhara, who used to be Shohei Ohtani's translator, told him to do.

 Mizuhara is waiting to be sentenced for stealing about $17 million from Ohtani to pay off bills to Bowyer. Bowyer used accounts at Resorts World and California's Pechanga Resort Casino to hide the money.  On top of that, Bowyer's wife Nicole was hired by Resorts World to be his special host.  He could spend up to 18 years in jail. His sentencing date is April 4, 2025.

 Scott Sibella is another important person. From 2019 to 2023, he was president and COO of Resorts World.  After hearing that the property was being looked into, he was fired in September for breaking company policy.

 In May, he admitted that he had broken anti-money laundering (AML) rules while he was president of MGM Grand.  He got nineteen months of probation and a $9,500 fine.  Another well-known illegal bookie, Wayne Nix, is said to have paid a $120,000 marker in cash while he was at MGM Grand without making a suspicious transaction report.

 Murren was still working at MGM when Sibella did something wrong.  The Nevada Current says that Murren was told about these claims as early as 2019.  Resorts World wouldn't say anything about the link.