The simple transfer of ownership interest in a small Nevada company is often a perfunctory and routine matter for state gaming regulators. Last week, the Gaming Control Board took all of 10 minutes to approve the transfer of longtime casino executive Marc Schorr’s small stake in a tavern operation to his son.
But it wasn’t that simple.
The matter had been more than a year in the making.
If the name Marc Schorr sounds familiar, it’s because he spent some 33 years as a close executive to Steve Wynn, starting at Golden Nugget, then to Mirage Resorts, and finally with Wynn Resorts. Schorr retired in 2013 after 13 years as Wynn’s chief operating officer and a company board member.
Schorr’s name is also familiar because it showed up multiple times in the Control Board’s January 2019 10-count complaint against Wynn Resorts that detailed years of failure by former company executives to “report and/or investigate” numerous allegations of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexual misconduct by Steve Wynn. The complaint resulted in a record $20 million fine Wynn Resorts paid Nevada in February 2019.
Schorr was one of several former Wynn executives named in the complaint’s first two counts, which were among the most egregious in the document. Gaming regulators alleged Schorr and others failed to initiate investigations into charges against Steve Wynn, who departed as the company’s chairman and CEO in February 2018.
All the former Wynn executives, including general counsel Kim Sinatra and chief human resources officer Arte Nathan, have left the gaming industry. Schorr was the only ex-Wynn executive with any type of Nevada gaming industry interest that could fall under the purview of regulators.
On March 25, 2019, Gaming Control Board Chairman Sandra Douglass Morgan, in a letter to Schorr, requested the retired gaming executive file an application for a gaming license over his 70% ownership of Schorr & Schorr Consulting, which owns a less than one-half of 1% stake in three PKWY taverns in Las Vegas.
Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairwoman Sandra Douglass Morgan
Schorr also owns 11.11% of Made LV LLC, which owns the PKWY tavern in the western Las Vegas community of Summerlin. The locations are considered restricted gaming operations with 15 or fewer slot machines.
The ownership stake became the means for gaming regulators to potentially question Schorr publicly about the allegations spelled out in the Wynn complaint.
Count 1 involved the alleged 2005 rape by Steve Wynn of a Wynn salon employee who alleged she became pregnant as a result of the encounter. The employee reached a confidential settlement of $7.5 million. Count 2 involved a “nonconsensual sexual relationship” in 2006 between Steve Wynn and a Wynn Las Vegas cocktail server that included a private settlement of $975,000.
On May 9, 2019, Schorr and his two attorneys met privately with Morgan. In June 2019, Schorr filed a request to transfer his interest in the business to his son, gaming executive Seth Schorr.
In a virtual presentation to board Wednesday, Fennemore Craig attorney Dan Reaser, Schorr’s gaming counsel, noted the meeting with Morgan in May 2019 that was deemed confidential. He said the transfer of the 70% interest in the consulting business to his Seth Schorr was a simple process and the 11.11% stake in Made LV would be completed for a “nominal fee” of $1.
“Marc is disposing of all of his interests in any Nevada gaming operation,” Reaser said.
Schorr attended the hearing but did not speak and never appeared on the virtual platform.
“Looking back now, Marc recognizes he would have proceeded differently in 2005,” Reaser said. “When a gaming executive is confronted with colliding interests in a company, regulators need to be informed.”
The Control Board recommended approval with little discussion and the Nevada Gaming Commission will take up the issue on Aug. 27, which brings up a different set of circumstances.
The Gaming Commission is involved in a lawsuit with Steve Wynn, who is challenging the regulators’ jurisdiction over him since he is no longer associated with Wynn Resorts. Last October, the Gaming Control Board filed a complaint seeking to label Wynn “unsuitable to be associated with a gaming enterprise or the gaming industry as a whole.”
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
