MGM Resorts, Boyd Gaming Not Complicit in Sex Trafficking: Judge

Posted on: December 4, 2024, 07:56h. 

Last updated on: December 4, 2024, 10:23h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

A federal judge in Nevada has dismissed a lawsuit brought against two Las Vegas gaming operators by a woman who says she was forced to work as a prostitute at their casinos from the age of 14.

MGM Resorts, Boyd Gaming, sex trafficking, lawsuit
A Las Vegas billboard displays a helpline number for trafficking victims as part of a campaign by the FBI. Tyla D. said she was forced into prostitution after running away from home at age 14. (Image: Seattle Times)

The plaintiff “Tyla D.,” a pseudonym, accused MGM Resorts and Boyd Gaming of turning a blind eye to her predicament because Las Vegas has always tolerated “a nominally illegal yet nearly omnipresent commercial sex sector.”

Controlled and Threatened

Tyla D. was trafficked into prostitution after running away from home at 14, according to the complaint. She was controlled and threatened by several men who each “beat her, raped her, forced her to have sex with strange men, took all or nearly all her earnings, held onto some or all of her identification documents, controlled her access to basic needs like food and housing, and had her watched at all times,” per the complaint.

The plaintiff was initially forced into prostitution as a minor in 2006 and 2007, and then again as an unwilling 20-year-old in 2013, according to the lawsuit. She was trafficked at Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand, both MGM Resorts properties, and at The Orleans, a Boyd property.

In 2013, casinos were beginning to use facial recognition software to help security staff flag undesirable individuals. This technology identified Tyla D. as a suspiciously frequent visitor to the casino, but staff failed to act, the lawsuit stated. This was illustrative of the casinos’ complicity in her predicament, she argued.

Time-Barred

Chief US District Judge Andrew P. Gordon granted the operators’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, in part, because the 10-year statute of limitations had expired. He determined that Tyla D. failed to demonstrate that extraordinary circumstances prevented a timely filing.

Tyla D. claims she has nightmares about her experience and suffered a “mental block” that made her believe she would not be taken seriously.

Gordon also ruled that Tyla D. had failed to allege any facts to support her conclusion that “the hotels knew that she was engaged in sex work because of trafficking or that their casino venture assisted, supported, or facilitated the trafficking.”

T.D. argues that the defendants identified her as a sex worker and that they should have inferred based on probability that she was a trafficking victim,” Gordon wrote.

“[…] It is not enough to establish a defendant’s knowledge of general commercial sex taking place at its property. Instead, the complaint must plausibly allege that the defendant knew or should have known of a venture that involved sex trafficking by force, threat of force, fraud, or coercion.”

Gordon gave Tyla D. until December 20 to file an amended complaint addressing these deficiencies.