Strip casino employees falsely accused of stealing ‘millions’ claim they were wrongly fired

Two Hispanic women who used to work at Aria casino-hotel are suing their former employer over claims they were wrongfully terminated after being falsely accused of stealing millions of dollars.

Erendira Dominguez and Allison Lopez filed a four-count complaint in U.S. District Court on Monday against Aria and its parent company MGM Resorts International alleging racial discrimination and retaliation stemming from a false accusation of misappropriated company funds. Dominguez and Lopez are suing for lost wages and compensatory damages resulting from “mental anguish, emotional distress, pain and suffering, humiliation, harm to reputation,” as well as punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

The two former MGM employees have asked for a jury trial.

An MGM spokesperson said the company had no comment on the recently filed lawsuit.

According to the complaint, Lopez and Dominguez were full-time employees in Aria’s marketing department, working as a manager and a coordinator, respectively. Both women had worked at Aria since the property opened in 2009.

As part of their duties in Aria’s casino marketing department, Lopez and Dominguez booked hotel rooms for Las Vegas Golf Adventures between 2021 and 2023 “under direction from their supervisors,” who were senior executives at the resort. All of the senior executives who oversaw Lopez and Dominguez were men, according to the complaint.

At some point in 2023, a new vice president of national marketing joined the Aria team and, according to court documents, began “baselessly speculating” that Lopez was booking rooms for personal use. The company claimed that “millions of dollars” worth of funds had gone missing as it related to the LVGA account.

Lopez and Dominguez contend that they had no access to account funds, nor did they have the ability to withdraw or transfer any money.

On Aug. 30, 2023, MGM Resorts and Aria suspended both women as a result of an investigation into the missing funds. Lopez received six weeks’ worth of her salary while Dominguez was not paid at all.

According to the lawsuit, MGM and Aria were “unable to determine” what happened to the missing funds associated with the LVGA account.

None of the male executives overseeing Aria’s marketing department were placed on unpaid suspension, according to the court filing. “Only the Hispanic female plaintiffs had to endure that adverse treatment,” the lawsuit states. One of the male executives was later transferred to an MGM property in Ohio while another was allowed to resign with severance.

Neither Lopez nor Dominguez was ever charged criminally in relation to the missing funds. Yet both women were terminated in December 2023. They claim that their professional reputations have been tarnished by the MGM investigation and they are effectively “blacklisted” from the gaming industry as a result.

David Danzis can be contacted at ddanzis@reviewjournal.com. Follow AC_Danzis on X.