Summertime Casino Crime
Law enforcement in the casino atmosphere is a numbers game in itself. While the roulette wheels spin, slot machines ring, drinks flow and dice skip across the craps table, deputy sheriffs from Douglas County tally arrests. " This is the busiest time of the year for the huge gambling complexes which are packing in tourists shoulder to, shoulder. And it's the time when the county jail overflows with drunks. "The more people we have up here, the more drunks here are and the more arrests. It's a numbers game," explained Douglas County Sheriff Dick Canatsey. He sat unnoticed in plainsclothes in a casino coffee shop booth and explained the job he has to do in the Lake Tahoe portion of his small but growing county. "Our population here increases by 100,000 in summer and the numbers create the problems. We arrest 1,400 people in the casino area each year. Just booking that many people for misdemeanors is very time consuming," he said. Those held for custodial protection until they sober up it don't add to the transport problem the sheriff must cope with. But other offenders, jailed for disturbing the peace, trespassing and other misdemeanors commonly associated with the effects of too much liquor, must be transferred from the county's temporary holding facility at Zephyr Cove to the county jail in Minden. Many hours of deputies' time is wrapped up in moving prisoners. "Most of the misdemeanor arrests are for trespassing and hat is generally because people get drunk and become abusive in the casinos. We have 50 per cent more arrests for misdemeanor trespassing than an area of similar size." Canatsey said. "Our drunk tank is not always full, but it's at capacity on summer weekends.
Of the 1.400 arrests we make. 800 are non-residents," he added. Rarely do deputeis have to enter any of the casinos to handle a problem because club security guards keep law and order on the inside, calling for outside help to take a "trespasser" or tipsy, abusive gambler to jail to sober up. "Security officers are 110 per cent with us. The casinos make their security staff available to us. If we didn't have them, we'd have to double or triple our force," Canatsey said. He still feels it necessary to put more personnel on the street than do most comparable law enforcement offices. "We've got less staff in the office. The minimum patrol is two cars and the sergeant, but that includes patrol of residential areas too." There are alwavs five men on duty at Stateline. and four in the Carson Valley excluding office help. He credits the casinos for "taking care of their own shop" and freeing his deputies from handling the internal problems. "The casinos pay more than their share of the bill." he added. Canatsey's men at Lake Tahoe are plagued with other time-consuming duties related to casinos, however One of the major ones is trying to distinguish phony theft reports from legitimate losses. Many reports filed by citizens are an attempt to cover a gambling loss "It's hard to distinguish between a gambling loss and a legitimate theft. A lady may actually have her purse stolen from between two slot machines she was playing and. then again, she may just say it happened in order to have a story to tell her husband when she goes home broke,"
Canatsey said Many of the people report losses to club security officers and never talk face to face with a deputy who may have been able to question a victim and determine if his story was legitimate and worth pursuing Instead, deputies must follow through on all the reports and often waste a lot of time. "It's like a doctor with a hypochondriac You have to help him and it takes time away from those who really need help but it's unavoidable," explained Canatsey's public information officer, Sgt. John Compston. "We have to give the same consideration to everyone And it's very rare that we file charges against someone for giving false reports That's a misdemeanor offense and we often find that the people are long gone by the time we discover we've been bluffed again." Compston added He estimates that 40 per cent of the theft reports filed are phony The most common sotry is that money was stolen from the victims. "We'll usually get a letter from those 'victims' after they get home and need a story to cover their gambling losses," Compston said "There's no way then that we can check out the car or look for evidence But we still have to process the report Cheating rases have been minimal And rape is uncommon. "There's no question many rapes aren't reported but mam that are are not legitimate either. It's the same problem all over the nation i don't think we have it any worse here than another resort area," Canatsey said Traffic of narcotics is more of a problem than distribution because "there's safety in numbers here and they can move drugs from state to" state without drawing attention to themselves Pushing is not the problem people think we have here, although drugs are moved through here, "he added Canatsey admits there are many law enforcement problems related to the casino atmosphere. But he's quick to add, "We have to have a co genial outlook Casinos are our life blood, although they create a lot of problems"
Of the 1.400 arrests we make. 800 are non-residents," he added. Rarely do deputeis have to enter any of the casinos to handle a problem because club security guards keep law and order on the inside, calling for outside help to take a "trespasser" or tipsy, abusive gambler to jail to sober up. "Security officers are 110 per cent with us. The casinos make their security staff available to us. If we didn't have them, we'd have to double or triple our force," Canatsey said. He still feels it necessary to put more personnel on the street than do most comparable law enforcement offices. "We've got less staff in the office. The minimum patrol is two cars and the sergeant, but that includes patrol of residential areas too." There are alwavs five men on duty at Stateline. and four in the Carson Valley excluding office help. He credits the casinos for "taking care of their own shop" and freeing his deputies from handling the internal problems. "The casinos pay more than their share of the bill." he added. Canatsey's men at Lake Tahoe are plagued with other time-consuming duties related to casinos, however One of the major ones is trying to distinguish phony theft reports from legitimate losses. Many reports filed by citizens are an attempt to cover a gambling loss "It's hard to distinguish between a gambling loss and a legitimate theft. A lady may actually have her purse stolen from between two slot machines she was playing and. then again, she may just say it happened in order to have a story to tell her husband when she goes home broke,"
Canatsey said Many of the people report losses to club security officers and never talk face to face with a deputy who may have been able to question a victim and determine if his story was legitimate and worth pursuing Instead, deputies must follow through on all the reports and often waste a lot of time. "It's like a doctor with a hypochondriac You have to help him and it takes time away from those who really need help but it's unavoidable," explained Canatsey's public information officer, Sgt. John Compston. "We have to give the same consideration to everyone And it's very rare that we file charges against someone for giving false reports That's a misdemeanor offense and we often find that the people are long gone by the time we discover we've been bluffed again." Compston added He estimates that 40 per cent of the theft reports filed are phony The most common sotry is that money was stolen from the victims. "We'll usually get a letter from those 'victims' after they get home and need a story to cover their gambling losses," Compston said "There's no way then that we can check out the car or look for evidence But we still have to process the report Cheating rases have been minimal And rape is uncommon. "There's no question many rapes aren't reported but mam that are are not legitimate either. It's the same problem all over the nation i don't think we have it any worse here than another resort area," Canatsey said Traffic of narcotics is more of a problem than distribution because "there's safety in numbers here and they can move drugs from state to" state without drawing attention to themselves Pushing is not the problem people think we have here, although drugs are moved through here, "he added Canatsey admits there are many law enforcement problems related to the casino atmosphere. But he's quick to add, "We have to have a co genial outlook Casinos are our life blood, although they create a lot of problems"