In Sommer v. Vanguard Group, 461 F.3d 397 (3d Cir. 2006), the Third Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that an employer may, under certain circumstances, reduce an employee’s bonus because of absences protected by the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The ruling affects employers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands.
For a number of reasons, a casino operation can find itself suffering from declining profits that put it into a distressed position. This situation can be the result of continual revenue losses over an extended period of time, or from a sharp decrease in profits during a recent, but relatively short, business cycle.
I know that between meetings, vendor visits, and company-directed agendas, we sometimes neglect some of the most fundamental things. This includes employee time and general floor time. But, have you thought about handing out an occasional, or even bi-monthly, inter-department fact sheet?
During the last year, the State Gaming Control Board of Nevada has taken several significant steps to address the regulatory challenges that relate to the technology advances in the gaming industry. New gaming technologies, such as systems-based and wireless applications, and the convergence of associated equipment with gaming devices, create an increasing reliance on digital solutions on the casino floor and in the resort.
In the movie Casino, Robert DeNiro plays a casino manager who observes a winning blackjack customer. He is drawn to this player not only because of his consecutive winning hands, but also because the player rarely loses, and never with a large wager. The casino manager, upon closer examination, also notices the player exchanging signals with another player at an adjacent table.
Last month the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) held their Winter Conference in New Orleans, where W. Owen Nitz and Jeffrey M. Cooper, were honored as the 2006 gaming executives of the year. The keynote presentation made by Nitz was thought invoking, as the history of the IP and rebuilding of the Gulf Coast were the primary theme.
A recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court) is likely to generate a flurry of class action claims arising under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In Bates v. United Parcel Service Inc., No. 04-17295 (9th Cir., Oct. 10, 2006), the Ninth Circuit upheld a ruling by a district court that the United Parcel Service (UPS) violated the ADA when it adopted a job qualification that excluded deaf individuals from employment as “package-car drivers” within the company.
When I heard the news that the Nevada Gaming Control Board was adopting Title 31’s cash reporting process and abandoning Regulation 6A, I told myself, “Watch out Las Vegas and Reno! Title 31 is like a tsunami, and my colleagues have no fair warning of what’s heading their way.”
