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Nevada Regulators Approve Deal with Strip Club

Nevada gaming regulators are expected to fine the Olympic Garden strip club $25,000 to penalize the club for a range of violations including the failure to prevent prostitution by its strippers.

Nevada Gaming Control Board members on Monday were reviewing details of deal reached with Olympic Garden owner Pete Eliades that would require the strip club to adopt training procedures and rules aimed at preventing prostitution by the club's strippers.

"There's a responsibility of the licensee to do everything possible to prevent criminal activity, including prostitution," control board member Bobby Siller said Monday. "This is a suitable agreement."

Siller was reviewing details of the proposed deal Monday afternoon, an agreement settling a complaint the three-member panel issued against the Las Vegas Boulevard adult business.

Because Olympic Garden has 13 video poker machines the club is subject to oversight by state gaming regulators.

"If (the regulators) approve this, it will be nice to have this problem behind us," Eliades said Monday. "This has been an educational process, because we didn't have specific rules to follow."

Siller said he expects to approve the deal, joining board member Scott Scherer, who had already approved its terms.

Two board members must OK the deal to recommend its approval to the Nevada Gaming Commission. The five-member commission is slated to consider the deal at its Thursday meeting in Las Vegas.

Control board chairman Dennis Neilander did not return Monday phone calls.

The six-page complaint against Olympic Garden listed three major violations, including a claim that undercover police detectives made six arrests of Olympic Garden strippers for prostitution or prostitution-related activities between February 1999 and February 2001.

The complaint also charges that undercover control board agents were not allowed to enter the club and play the poker machines without paying the club's $20 cover charge, violating state rules requiring most gambling in the state to be open to the public.

The deal, also six pages, would require a sign to be posted near the club's entrance that clearly explains that gamblers are allowed to play the video poker machines without paying a cover charge.

To prevent customers from using the machines as an excuse to avoid the club's cover charge, the club will still be able to levy the charge against all entrants, but will have to refund the admission fee to those who play the machines and then leave.

An Olympic Garden-linked Web site with pornographic images including full frontal male and female nudity was also cited in the complaint.

The Internet site generated controversy at a panel meeting last summer when Siller upbraided Eliades for the site's graphic content.

Eliades that same day ordered his two relatives operating the linked site to shut it down.

The deal would require Olympic Garden to ensure its Web site has no links to pornographic images.

Eliades said he wants to make sure his club follows the state's gaming rules and doesn't want to quarrel with regulators.

"We'll make peace because its much better to have peace and understanding," he said, citing the cost of fighting the control board's complaint. "Lawyers would cost a lot more than we get from the slot machines."

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