This is a huge story for Nevada gaming, but I haven’t heard much about it until today. Currently, Nevada casinos are basically self-regulating when it comes to reporting large financial transactions, but all of that is going to end. From the LVRJ:
Something uniquely Nevadan and historic is about to end today.
No, it’s not the ability to get a marriage license 24 hours a day in Clark County. (Where would Britney Spears go the next time she gets liquored up and decides to get married at 5:30 a.m.? Who are we to deny her, or anyone, the right to be stupid by not offering 24-hour marriage licenses?)
Without fanfare, without regrets, the Nevada Gaming Commission today is expected to repeal Regulation 6a, a gaming rule designed to ferret out money launderers. Reg 6a, as it is fondly called, requires casinos to track cash transactions of $3,000 and more and report to the Treasury Department anyone whose cash transactions exceed $10,000 in 24 hours.
Doesn’t sound too sexy, but Reg 6a violations cost MGM Mirage $5 million in fines in 2004, so the regulation obviously had some kick to it. And MGM Mirage wasn’t alone in getting dinged with fines; that was just the largest ding.
The regulation that Nevada fought so hard to obtain in 1985 so the federal government wouldn’t intrude now is going gently into the good night, all because of the Patriot Act. The federal government wants the ability to track cash transactions across state lines, and Nevada was the only state doing its own job of tracking such transactions.
reviewjournal.com — News – Nevada gaming to give up piece of autonomy in name of terrorism fight
So come next summer (July 30, 2007 is when 6A gives way to Title 31, the federal regulation), things will be handled a little differently on the casino floor.