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SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Okay, so the story broke,
00:04 I wanna say a couple of months ago here
00:06 about the former president over at the MGM Grand,
00:09 he pled guilty to money laundering
00:12 and it was an illegal book making ring.
00:14 And so just by pleading guilty, what does this mean, Sam?
00:17 Does this mean like just sentencing is next?
00:19 - Yep, that's exactly what it means.
00:23 The former MGM Grand president, Scott Sabella,
00:26 pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge
00:28 of basically failing to file reports
00:30 of suspicious transactions at his casino,
00:33 which is the MGM Grand as well as the Cosmopolitan,
00:36 both in Las Vegas.
00:37 He essentially admitted to knowing
00:39 that this now very well-known bookie
00:44 was spending upwards of $5 million
00:48 in basically dirty money at the MGM casinos.
00:52 And he basically said, "I kinda knew what was going on,
00:54 "I didn't really wanna look into it.
00:55 "He was spending so much money with us,
00:57 "I didn't wanna flag it."
00:58 But that's against the law in the US,
00:59 so he admitted to violating the Bank Secrecy Act,
01:02 which basically means if a casino knows something,
01:04 they gotta say something.
01:06 So he faces up to five years in prison for this,
01:08 as well as a $250,000 fine.
01:11 And the MGM has already agreed to pay about $7 million
01:15 in fines associated with it.
01:17 But it all comes back to this story,
01:19 which we've talked about a few times,
01:20 is this guy, Wayne Nix,
01:22 who ran a bookmaking business for 20 years.
01:24 He was the guy in question in this case,
01:26 going to the casinos,
01:28 actually getting benefits from Cibela,
01:31 as well as MGM, like complimentary benefits,
01:34 to basically free meals,
01:36 golf trips with a business executive,
01:39 things like that,
01:40 that he actually said he would use
01:42 to help recruit more people and high-profile executives.
01:45 And this is a very big case.
01:48 He has sentencing, I believe, in a few months,
01:50 and faces, I think, 20 years in prison.
01:53 This is a case that involved a former LA Dodger,
01:55 Yasiel Puig, Maverick Carter, LeBron James, businessman.
02:00 So it's some pretty big names popping up,
02:02 yet again, in this case.
02:04 It seems to always bubble up with more celebrities,
02:06 get more people involved.
02:08 I mean, it's not a good look for MGM, obviously,
02:10 or the gambling industry in general,
02:13 basically enticing this dirty money into their casinos,
02:16 and using that as a way to recruit more people,
02:19 and kind of benefiting from him.
02:21 So it was investigated by Homeland Security,
02:23 and it's kind of another sign that federal law enforcement
02:26 is really looking in,
02:27 cracking down more on the illegal bookmaking business,
02:30 and illegal gambling rings that we have in the US.
02:34 (upbeat music)
02:36 (upbeat music)