Las Vegas Mayor Candidates Both Funded by Casinos Outside of the City


The two top candidates to be the next mayor of Las Vegas – Councilwoman Victoria Seaman and former Nevada House Representative Shelley Berkley – are set to face-off in a runoff election poll on November 5. 

The contest follows a close election held earlier in June. That night failed to provide a clear-enough winner between the two candidates, leading to the head-to-head runoff. 

Both candidates are backed by many representatives of the local gambling business, which is Nevada’s biggest employer. In fact, both candidates are backed by many of the same people. Ditto for June’s election, where even third- and fourth- place candidates saw donations from gambling figures. 

The mayor of Las Vegas is certainly an important position. But unless you’re a regular or local, you might not know that the mayor has no direct say in what happens on the Las Vegas Strip

That’s because the giant casino resort corridor is entirely located in Clark County. The separate city of Las Vegas proper starts at the downtown area, located at the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip. 

However, casino operators are known for hedging bets. Which led to both candidates for mayor of Las Vegas seeing financial backing from many of the same gambling operations that are, technically, not under the jurisdiction of the mayor at all. 

Money on All Three

The list of Las Vegas metro area casino operators that have donated to either or both mayoral candidates is a long one. 

It includes Michael Gaughan, who previously owned a half-dozen Las Vegas casinos, but now owns only one, South Point Casino Resort. Which is, in fact, 11 miles from the city of Las Vegas, nearer to the suburb of Henderson. 

Nevertheless, South Point donated $10,000 to both candidates. The Nevada Independent quoted Gaughan saying he had all bases covered, including in the primary elections.

“In the primary, I had my money on all three,” Gaughan said. He donated $7,500 to third-place candidate Councilman Cedric Crear. 

Other Donors 

In total, former Democratic Congresswoman Berkley received $67,500 in total donations from Nevada-based casino operators. That included $5,000 from Wynn Resorts, which has two Las Vegas Strip properties. 

Her campaign also took $1,000 from the CEO of Full House Casinos, Dan Lee. Full House recently sold Stockman’s Casino in Fallon, Nevada. That means their nearest casino to Las Vegas is the Grand Lodge in Lake Tahoe, some 450 miles away.

Most of Berkley’s other gambling donors are actually from her potential jurisdiction. On the list are Circa Casino owner Derek Stevens ($10,000), Strat owner Golden Entertainment ($10,000), and Boyd Gaming ($5,000) which operates three casinos in the downtown area. 

Berkley’s opponent, Seaman, took in $52,000 from casino or gambling-related businesses. From within the city of Las Vegas, Golden Entertainment gave her $7,500, while Station Casinos gave $5,000, and its Palace Station casino donated $10,000. Boyd Gaming’s Suncoast property also donated $5,000. 

Las Vegas Sands (headquartered in the Las Vegas Valley, but currently with no casinos in the U.S.) and the Venetian Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip both donated $10,000. That’s according to campaign donation database aggregator FollowTheMoney. MGM Resorts also contributed $2,500 to the Republican candidate. 

One interesting donor was Gold & Silver Pawn, the store from the long-running TV show Pawn Stars, which donated $2,000. 

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