Nevada gaming regulators voted to fine Caesars Palace $7.8 million Thursday over failing to comply with anti-money laundering rules, settling a case that centered on an illegal bookmaker with ties to the former interpreter for the baseball star Shohei Ohtani.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board alleged that Caesars Palace failed to verify bookmaker Mathew Bowyer's source of funds as he gambled millions of dollars between 2017 and 2024, despite suspicions being raised on several occasions and an anonymous tip that Bowyer was a bookie.
It's the third casino to be fined at least partly in relation to Bowyer's activity; a $10.5 million stipulated fine handed to the Resorts World casino earlier this year was the second-largest ever from the gaming board.
Caesars executives said their systems for catching such behavior had failed.
“There is no customer that’s worth illegitimate profits. We didn’t catch Bowyer and we should have,” Tom Reeg, the CEO of Caesars Entertainment, said at Thursday's hearing.
Bowyer pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2024, which included running an illegal gambling business and money laundering. Prosecutors said Bowyer took bets from hundreds of people, including Ohtani's former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.
Mizuhara — who translated for the Japanese athlete — was sentenced in federal court earlier this year to five years in prison for bank and tax fraud after he stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani's bank account.
The settlement between Caesars Palace and the Gaming Control Board includes requirements for the casino company to better ensure compliance with anti-money laundering laws, including more training for staff.
“The way our (anti-money laundering) program operated in this instance was unacceptable," said Gary Carano, the executive chairman of Caesars Entertainment's board of directors, at the hearing. “We will do everything possible to prevent this from coming before you ever again.”
Earlier this year, MGM Resorts International was fined $8.5 million for actions related to Bowyer and another bookmaker, the Nevada Independent reported.
MGM Resorts International and Resorts World did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
FILE - Mathew Bowyer, a southern California bookmaker, arrives at federal court for sentencing, Aug. 29, 2025, in Santa Ana, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is slipping Thursday after oil prices resumed their climb.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% and is on track for a fourth drop in five days after setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 83 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:01 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.
A halt in the torrid run for stocks benefiting from the artificial-intelligence boom has slowed the U.S. market recently. Not even another better-than-expected profit report from Nvidia was enough to kick it back into gear.
The chip company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while also forecasting revenue for the current quarter that cleared analysts’ estimates. “The buildout of AI factories — the largest infrastructure expansion in human history — is accelerating at extraordinary speed,” CEO Jensen Huang said.
But such performances and such talk have become routine, and Nvidia's stock swiveled between losses and gains before falling 1.4%.
Some analysts said the weakness may have simply been because investors were locking in profits after Nvidia’s stock had soared nearly 70% over the prior year, more than double the S&P 500’s 27% jump. The broad AI industry is also getting criticism for becoming too expensive, as well as too circular as Nvidia has bought ownership stakes in companies that use its own chips that drive Nvidia’s revenue.
Pressure built on Wall Street, meanwhile, as the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 1.7% to $106.81 and trimmed its loss for the week. Oil prices have been swinging up and down with uncertainty about how long the war with Iran will keep the Strait of Hormuz shut, which is preventing oil tankers from exiting the Persian Gulf to deliver crude.
The higher oil prices pushed Treasury yields upward in the bond market, resuming rises following a slowdown the day before.
Climbing yields have cranked up the pressure on financial markets worldwide. They're slowing economies and weighing on prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. Besides driving up rates for mortgages, high yields could also curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have been supporting the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.61% from 4.57% late Wednesday.
It had gotten near 4.63% in the morning, after a report gave the latest signal that the U.S. job market remains in better shape than economists expected. The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits last week unexpectedly declined in an indication of fewer layoffs.
But yields eased a bit following a mixed preliminary report showing weaker-than-expected growth for business activity among U.S. services businesses and improved growth for U.S. manufacturers. Companies are feeling the effects of accelerating inflation and are seeing subdued growth in their order books, the preliminary data from an S&P Global survey said.
“The damaging economic impact from the war in the Middle East is becoming increasingly evident in the business surveys,” according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Inflation is worsening even beyond the high oil prices caused by the Iran war, while U.S. households are showing widespread discouragement about the economy.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Walmart fell 7.2% following its profit report. The retailer delivered another quarter of impressive revenue but offered up weaker forecasts for upcoming profit than analysts expected.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Ralph Lauren, which jumped 12.2% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following bigger moves in Asia.
South Korea’s Kospi Kospi soared 8.4% thanks to strength for technology stocks. Samsung Electronics jumped 8.5% after its labor union and management reached an agreement late Wednesday that averted a strike. SK Hynix, a chip company partnering with Nvidia, surged 11.2%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.1%, while indexes fell 1% in Hong Kong and 2% in Shanghai.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Trader Aaron Ford works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Edward McCarthy works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A Global Medical Response helicopter sits in front of the New York Stock Exchange before the planned IPO of GMR Solutions, Inc., Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
