The charm offensive continues apace on the Las Vegas Strip as some of its biggest players attempt to put an embarrassing and costly illegal bookmaking and money laundering scandal behind them.

Fresh and familiar faces are in abundance these days along with stories about the concerted efforts being made to follow federal anti-money laundering regulations and the rules that apply in the state with the longest history of legal gambling. For those who have followed the Nevada gaming industry, it all has a familiar ring.

One of those fresh faces, Alex Dixon, has already been moved from Resorts World Las Vegas’ president’s office and replaced just this week by Carlos Castro. The company is soft selling the move.

But let’s not be too cynical. It’s all part of the reality of legalized gaming, and the reason those regulations exist in the first place. Besides, there will be time for cynicism later.

The California-based federal investigation has already resulted in millions in fines to MGM Grand and Resorts World, the conviction of several illegal bookies who once enjoyed the run of the house as casino high-rollers, and the banishment of longtime gaming executive Scott Sibella for a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act’s “Know Your Customer” provision in a case connected to illegal bookmaker Wayne Nix.

As part of their 2024 federal non-prosecution agreements, MGM and The Cosmopolitan agreed to pay a total of $7.5 million to resolve their issues in the Sibella matter. The company in April paid another $8.5 million to resolve the state’s complaint.

The corporate bad actors have also been taken to the woodshed by the Nevada Gaming Commission, where they’ve agreed to pay more millions in fines and promise to follow the well-established laws and regulations from now on. Resorts World in March agreed to pay the state $10.5 million after admitting it allowed illegal bookie Mathew Bowyer to gamble there and even let his wife act as his marketing host. Talk about a bad look.

Bro-generation bookies Bowyer, Nix and Damien Leforbes have become household names around Strip poker rooms after admitting guilt in the federal investigation. They have yet to be sentenced in the case investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agents and prosecuted by the U.S. attorney in the Central District of California. 

All the check cutting and mea culpas would lead most to believe that the federal investigation and state regulatory interests are being sated and the multiple cases have exhausted their prosecutorial intrigue. But if this investigation has taught us anything, it is that one element of the story appears indefatigable.

It’s the endless finger-pointing of former advantage-gambler-turned-24/7-casino-informant Robert “RJ” Cipriani, known on social media and in Strip dealers’ rooms as “Robin Hood 702.” Like a horse fly buzzing around a bull elephant, this guy has been irritating casino executives to the point of distraction for several years.

He’s still buzzing, this time with an April 25 email sent to Nevada Gaming Commission Chairwoman Jennifer Togliatti, two Gaming Control Board enforcement agents, and a dozen reporters with undocumented leads and what’s sure to be written off as innuendo that’s highly critical of the state of play in Nevada.

He’s once again reminding regulators and the press about what he calls major gaming licensees’ willingness to cater to illegal bookies and other nefarious characters, including some with documented organized crime connections. For his trouble, Cipriani’s been laughed at, vilified and even arrested on suspiciously convenient larceny charges later reduced to negligible infractions.

Now the self-styled casino crusader is shining a light on The Venetian for allowing Leforbes to gamble on credit after his status as an illegal bookmaker was well known on the Strip. This is something I verified independently and reported for The Indy in March. Gaming regulators and the Clark County District Attorney’s Office are well aware of it.

Leforbes, one of the bookies trespassed from the MGM during the Nix investigation, received casino credit at The Venetian in November 2023. He eventually lost approximately $3 million, but good luck collecting it. After repeated unsuccessful collection attempts, the casino referred the unpaid debt to the DA’s Bad Check Unit, but later withdrew its complaint and wrote off the marker. 

Accepting that Cipriani is neither a saint nor an altruist, he was right about the brazenly sloppy management practices at Resorts World. He was right about MGM, too, and the fallout cost its former president Sibella his career.

Cipriani and Sibella are on opposite sides of this issue, but they share something in common. Both agree that the illegal bookies’ presence in Strip casinos was common knowledge in executive offices up and down the Boulevard.

The mouthy character that Deadline.com describes as a “Philly high-stakes gambler-turned FBI source” is 86’d from Las Vegas casinos, but he still manages to have their number.

“Every casino exec that took their action KNEW they were illegal bookies and did nothing about it,” Cipriani writes in his email.

Given what we’ve learned so far, who can say he’s wrong?

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.