Station Casinos fined $80K for alleged errors in sports betting system at Red Rock Resort

The Nevada Gaming Commission has delivered an $80,000 fine to Station Casinos Inc. and its parent company Red Rock Resorts after the business failed to prevent its sportsbook app from taking wagers after events had taken place. The fine followed a unanimously-approved settlement with the company Thursday after a two-count complaint concerning glitches in its sports wagering system at its Las Vegas Red Rock Resort. 

Station did not confirm or deny allegations made by the regulator in a 13-page complaint originally filed in September with 348 wagers on events with already known outcomes. The company initially planned to contest the disciplinary action. However, officials acknowledged they failed to properly maintain virtual servers, which enabled its computer software to continue taking bets after events had begun due to a lack of computer memory. 

However, they also noted problems with their computer software, which had been certified in tests by regulators when it was introduced. The company characterized the matter as a flaw in software provided by Las Vegas-based Stadium Technology Group’s Stadium Live program. Station tracked down all illegal bets and nullified the wagers, returning bets back to all players, meaning neither they nor the state were financially affected by the issues.

In the original complaint, the control board said the problematic wagers took place over a three-year period. Regulators said when the company self-reported issues, it blamed a computer malfunction caused by “insufficient server memory” for Stadium Live.

Three times in prior years, once in 2018 and twice in 2019, the control board issued sports wagering regulation violation letters to Red Rock Resort. According to the complaint, Station Casinos said the malfunction caused the Red Rock Resort sportsbook to issue 167 wagering tickets in January 2022, which were later voided with the bets being refunded.

In October 2021, Station Casinos said the company’s sports betting system was being replaced by a system developed by gaming software provider GAN Limited, and GAN then announced an agreement to build out the sports betting infrastructure for the company’s retail sportsbooks, betting kiosks and the STN mobile app.


Red Rock Casino’s sportsbook

At the Thursday meeting, no specific provider was named, and it was said the system still required technical certification and licensing from Nevada regulators. Gaming Control Board Chairman Brin Gibson said that new software is still in the testing phase and he expects Station to use its current vendor for at least one more year.  He also added that regulators were satisfied the company was making a significant financial investment in a new system and moving as fast as it could to solve the problem.

Attorney Marc Rubinstein, representing Station Casinos, said Station is attempting to move away from the Stadium Live system “as quickly as they can.” He also stated that the company would continue to monitor the system to make sure any past-posting issues do not occur before the GAN system is in place. “We understand our culpability, but there are some other folks that contributed to this”, he said, as reported by The Nevada Independent. 

In 2016 and 2018, CG Technology, a sports wagering system provider formerly known as Cantor Gaming, was fined $1.5 million and $1.75 million, respectively, by the state. The company’s CEO also was forced to resign, in a disciplinary action involving an illegal gambling operation.