The controversy surrounding illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer arose again this week. The Nevada Gaming Commission fined The Venetian Las Vegas $7.2 million on Thursday.
The commission said the property failed to stop Bowyer from gambling from 2019 to 2021. The fine came after the regulatory body voted 3-0 on a settlement with the casino. Global Management operates The Venetian. It purchased the resort from Las Vegas Sands in 2022.
Bowyer has been at the center of other major fines involving Las Vegas Strip properties. He pleaded guilty to several gambling-related crimes in 2024.
State gaming regulators allege that properties didn’t follow anti-money laundering and Know your Customer protocols when allowing Bowyer to gamble. Regulators added Bowyer to the state’s “Black Book” of gamblers in March. The designation bans him from all casinos in the state.
Latest In Casino Fines
The commission alleged Bowyer ran “unsuitable” activities in Las Vegas casinos, making “cash front” deposits involving millions of dollars. The Venetian penalty followed fines at several Las Vegas casinos.
Caesars Entertainment agreed to a $7.8 million settlement in November after Bowyer made cash deposits of almost $4.5 million at some of the company’s properties. He made seven at Caesars Palace.
Regulators said Caesars’ relationship with Bowyer dated back to 2017, despite a company file saying his source of funds couldn’t be determined. Transactions at Caesars properties continued through 2021, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
The Venetian penalty comes after a significant delay in enforcement – more than eight months after Caesars was fined. Wynn agreed to a $5.5 million fine in 2025, and Resorts World paid a $10.5 million fine for similar reasons the same year. It was the second-largest fine ever given to a Sin City casino.
“Resorts World executives explained to board agents that it should take no longer than 90 days to complete a source-of-funds investigation,” the Nevada Gaming Commission said. “However, Bowyer was allowed to play at Resorts World for approximately 20 months without establishing his source of funds and or that his source of funds was consistent with his level of play.”
In April 2025, MGM Resorts received an $8.5 million fine for allowing Bowyer to gamble at the Cosmopolitan from 2015 to 2018.
The Venetian fine now brings the total paid out by Las Vegas casinos to almost $40 million for accepting Bowyer’s bets.
Fines Could Impact High-Stakes Poker
The Bowyer betting scandal has now led to fines at most of the major gaming companies operating on the Strip. The potential for money laundering and the repercussions felt on the Strip could impact high-stakes poker players as properties begin to require customers to prove the source of large sums of money.
Anti-money laundering (AML) regulations already affected high-stakes cash games during the World Series of Poker this summer. High-stakes regular Britney Jing was removed from a Hustler Casino Live cash game livestream held during the series after WSOP officials initially couldn’t verify where her cash came from.
In 2025, Strip casinos eliminated the policy of allowing players to exchange chips from other casinos to deter money laundering.
The Venetian fine is significant because the property was the lone major Strip operator that had gone unscathed from gaming regulators. The casino hosts high-stakes tournaments and cash game livestreams. It now seems likely the property will more stringently determine the source of a player’s funds.
Players may start noticing similar efforts nationwide. That includes tribal properties. According to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, tribal casinos must also follow federal anti-money laundering laws and are also fully subject to the Bank Secrecy Act.
This environment possibly could make crypto usage more mainstream in poker. Operators might shift anti-money laundering concerns to third-party platforms to process transactions between casinos and the players’ funds.
Beyond his role in the Las Vegas cash deposit scandal, Bowyer also was a central figure in the betting controversy surrounding L.A. Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani.
Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for the baseball star, gambled through Bowyer, according to federal investigators. The interpreter reportedly lost millions of dollars using the baseball star’s bank accounts. He eventually received 57 months in federal prison.
