Long Beach-based Poker-pro and former Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV) regular Damien LeForbes admitted to money laundering and operating an illegal gambling business in a federal plea deal filed this week in Central California District Court. The plea makes LeForbes the third illegal bookmaker tied to Vegas casinos taken down by the feds in as many years.
According to the agreed to statement of facts, LeForbes took bets through a website, call center, and network of agents and sub-agents. The document states that the business was often producing gross revenue of more than $2,000 per day.
LeForbes now faces up to 15 years in prison, though the plea agreement should result in a reduced sentence. He’ll also pay a fine of up to either $500,000 or twice the gross gain or loss tied to his offenses—whichever is greater. Additionally, he is responsible for a special mandatory assessment fee of $200.
Cash, Checks, Crypto Used to Finance Betting Ring
Signed by LeForbes in June and filed with the court Monday, the plea agreement lays out the case against the now-admitted illegal bookmaker.
According to the plea, between January 2022 and December 2023, LeForbes gambled $148 million at ‘Casino A‘. The agreement further states that LeForbes ran over $9 million through the casino using checks tied to a gambling ring-associated bank account.
During the period of October 1, 2021 and December 22, 2023, defendant executed at least 17 personal or cashier’s checks to Casino A, totalling at least $9,105,000.
Leforbes executed one such check on or about April 14, 2023, for $1 million. However, according to the agreement, LeForbes also paid Casino A with at least $2.8 million in cash. He also used chips from said casino to pay winning bettors. The document highlights a text from LeForbes to another alleged bookie: “(Casino A) is most important because the chips are so versatile for me.”
In addition to cash and checks, LeForbes used cryptocurrency wallets to move money between his gambling ring and winning and losing bettors. The agreement highlights one instance in which LeForbes counseled a concerned client on navigating crypto to avoid legal scrutiny.
I’d just send like $100,000 at a time to different addresses. You can create a different address in a wallet every time [.] Just don’t send to an exchange [.] Wallets are fine though… Just remember fresh address [.] No exchanges [.] I do it every week for millions back and forth [.]
Per the facts presented, LeForbes also recruited Casino A’s hosts as “referral agents” for his bookmaking business.
In some instances, defendant recruited casino hosts to be agents of the LeForbes Gambling Business. This included at least two hosts at Casino A, who referred at least two new potential bettors.
NGCB Complaint Targets Resorts World
The plea deal doesn’t specifically identify which Vegas property is Casino A.
However, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) recently filed a complaint with the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) against Resorts World over similar issues.
Specifically, the NGCB complaint alleges that Resorts World allowed admitted illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer and others to gamble without identifying a credible source of funds. Among the others is Patron A, one of four unnamed gamblers cited. The complaint states that Patron A told his RWLV host about his bookmaking activities during a casino visit. It also alleges the same gambler lost $10 million gambling at the property on 150 separate occasions between fall 2022 and late 2023.
Further, according to the Nevada Current, casino records show that Resorts World referred a bad check tied to LeForbes worth $2.5 million to DA Steven Wolfson earlier this year. The Current also reported that The Venetian sent another $1 million unpaid marker tied to LeForbes to the Clark County District Attorney, per an unnamed source. Wolfson has not instigated any legal action addressing the unpaid markers.
Notably, the Current was the first outlet to report on the federal probe into illegal bookmaking and money laundering linked to Vegas casinos.
Last fall, within weeks of that initial report, Resorts World fired former president Scott Sibella. In January, Sibella pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act while at MGM Grand before his move to RWLV. Specifically, Sibella admitted overlooking suspicious transactions linked to Wayne Nix, the first of three to plead guilty to illegal bookmaking in response to this same federal probe.
Since then, MGM Grand and the Cosmopolitan entered non-prosecution agreements with the feds and paid a (combined) $7.45 million fine. To date, Resorts World has not faced discipline beyond the NGCB complaint.
Plea Leaves LeForbes Limited Cash, Crypto
In late 2023, authorities seized millions from LeForbes Long Beach home. However, as part of the LeForbes plea deal, the feds agreed to return $249,000 in cash and 5,000 Chainlink digital coins.
LeForbes’ Vegas-based attorney, David Chesnoff, and Clark County District Attorney Steven Wolfson did not respond to Bonus‘s attempts for comment.
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