Relax: MGM parking garages won’t eat your license

Earlier this month, MGM Resorts International fired the shot heard ’round the valley — the long-awaited details of the company’s $90 million parking strategy that begins June 6.

One of the big takeaways of MGM’s announcement was that parking will be free to Nevada residents for 24-hour periods at least until Dec. 29, when the company will evaluate what it will do next.

So how does MGM determine whether you’re a Nevada resident entitled to that free parking?

Easy. They scan your Nevada driver’s license as you exit the parking garage. Once your license is scanned, the arm at the gate swings up and you exit.

That explanation of how the system would work immediately set off a flurry of conspiracy theorists wondering just how MGM would exploit the information the scanner would glean from your license.

Several people jammed the email box at Warrior Central with questions about the plan.

“I can’t wait for the first time one of those machines swallows a driver’s license,” one reader said.

“I’m going to sue MGM when they sell my private information or when I start getting emails telling me I should join their Mlife club,” another wrote.

Hold on, faithful readers.

I get it that many of you believe MGM is the evil empire for unleashing this travesty of justice of having to pay for parking. I get it that you want MGM CEO Jim Murren to have to pay to park at your house. I get it that many of you say you won’t ever set foot inside an MGM property again, or at least until Paul McCartney performs a concert at one of the company’s venues.

I don’t believe most of you will uphold that vow.

So let’s set the record straight on the scanning of licenses.

First, an MGM machine will never swallow your license because it’s never inserted into the machine. The motorist will have to pass the license in front of a scanner that will take the information it needs to open the gate.

And just what exactly will it take — and is it even legal for MGM to take that information?

“When personal information, including the type of information contained on the face of a driver’s license, is obtained from the Department of Motor Vehicles, there are statutory restrictions on the use and sale of the personal information,” said Kevin Malone, a department spokesman.

“But the department does not have authority to regulate the use and sale of personal information obtained from a Nevada driver’s license voluntarily provided by a customer to a business, including a situation where a customer scans their driver’s license to receive free parking,” Malone said.

What that means is that if you allow your license to be scanned, you’re agreeing to allow the company doing the scanning access to your information.

But guess what. MGM has no plans to use the information for marketing or anything else. It just wants you to be able to open the gate.

I realize many readers have a hard time conceptualizing this and will be suspicious of MGM no matter what.

MGM’s Gordon Absher, who surely is working toward a master’s degree in Advanced Parking Concepts, explained that on the back of a Nevada driver’s license are two bar codes. The large one has all the information listed on the face of the license — name, address, height, weight, hair and eye color, etc. The smaller code has the information MGM wants — whether the license holder is from Nevada. That’s the bar code that will trigger the opening of the gate.

“We are not linked to any database that would allow us to gather or even read any personal information from the license,” Absher said. “Further, bar code information is not stored by our system.”

At the risk of making some readers even more paranoid, MGM’s system also has a license-plate scanner. But, again, that data when collected isn’t stored.

“The license plate scanner is used only as a means to link the vehicle to the method of entry — an entry ticket, a driver’s license or an Mlife card,” he said. “The license plate recognition system does not link to any vehicle database so we have no way to identify a vehicle or an owner. The plate and payment information is stored only as a reference linking the vehicle to method of payment for purposes such as reconciling a lost ticket.”

Hopefully, this satisfies all suspicions. I’ll get a little nervous if I start seeing MGM offering special perks to brown-haired, brown-eyed men with glasses who weigh more than 400 pounds.

Fifth open

North Las Vegas quietly opened the Fifth Street overpass of Interstate 15, providing a new direct route between the old North Las Vegas to the new North Las Vegas.

The route is a great option to get to and from NLV City Hall and to the Sawyer Building and downtown Las Vegas without using I-15, which may become a good plan when Project Neon kicks into high gear.

One minor flaw: At the intersection of Fifth and Cheyenne Avenue, there’s always been a two-lane left turn from southbound Fifth onto eastbound Cheyenne. Now that the new route is open, the turn has been converted to a single lane with two lanes going straight.

Motorists unaccustomed to the change are still treating it as a double left turn, even though the intersection is well signed and appropriately striped.

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