FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2, 2015
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
UNITE HERE Calls on Nevada Gaming Regulators to Investigate
Deutsche Bank’s Suitability to Own Nevada Casinos
Las Vegas, NV—Today members of the UNITE HERE’s Culinary Workers Union Local 226 attended the Nevada Gaming Control Board meeting and called on the state’s gaming regulators to investigate Deutsche Bank’s suitability to own Nevada casinos. A Deutsche Bank subsidiary owns 25% of Station Casinos LLC and its 19 casinos in Nevada. Despite having the authority, state gaming regulators have not required the bank to go through the state’s licensing process for its role in the Las Vegas-based gaming company.
“A lot has changed since May 2011 when you authorized Deutsche Bank’s equity role in Station Casinos without a suitability determination,” Culinary Union Research Director Maya Holmes told the Gaming Control Board. “Deutsche Bank is now the parent company of a felon and has agreed to pay record fines of $2.5 billion for its role in global LIBOR manipulation.”
Earlier this year a Deutsche Bank subsidiary entered a guilty plea to criminal wire fraud and the bank agreed to pay record fines to U.S. and U.K. regulatory officials for its role in rigging LIBOR, a benchmark interest rate affecting trillions of dollars of debt like mortgages, credit cards, and student loans.
In the LIBOR probe, the bank was accused of lying to regulators, dragging its feet during investigations, and engaging in a criminal fraud upon the worldwide marketplace. It is currently the subject of at least three U.S. criminal investigations, including a Justice Department probe into possible money laundering by the bank’s Russian clients.
Tomorrow a bank unit is expected to receive a guilty verdict in a criminal case in South Korea for its alleged role in spot/futures-linked market manipulation. The U.S. Department of Labor recently announced it had tentatively decided against supporting a long-term exemption requested by Deutsche Bank to manage client retirement accounts following the bank subsidiary’s criminal conviction for wire fraud. A final decision is pending.
“My job depends on the ability of the Nevada gaming regulators to protect the reputation, integrity and stability of Nevada’s gaming industry,” said union member Monie Cariaga Stewart, a cocktail server at the Paris Hotel and Casino. “We respectfully ask Nevada gaming regulators to call Deutsche Bank forward for a suitability review.”
At today’s meeting, a Culinary Union representative listed examples of gaming applications that had been denied by the state regulators and questioned why Deutsche Bank’s admitted and alleged misconduct has not received the same level of scrutiny.
“The Gaming Commission has always maintained a high standard when it comes to licensing casinos,” said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer of the Culinary Union. “It is unthinkable that Deutsche Bank, the parent company of a felon, is allowed to profit from its ownership in Station Casinos without being licensed.
Culinary Union’s public comments from today’s Gaming Control Board meeting:
###
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent over 55,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 270,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.