Planet Hollywood fined for behavior at leased Prive nightclub — who is next?

Planet Hollywood is the first Las Vegas resort to admit it should have taken responsibility for problems in a nightclub it didn’t own, but leased out. The admission is going to cost at least $500,000, and another $250,000 if Privé doesn’t clean up its act.

But Planet Hollywood is likely not the last resort to be disciplined. As many as eight or nine other resorts are still under investigation by the Gaming Control Board, so stay tuned.

Planet Hollywood agreed today to pay a $750,000 fine and admitted it didn’t keep control over activities at the Privé nightclub, activities that discredited the gaming industry. Activities that reflect poorly on the reputation of Nevada gaming expose folks with Nevada gaming licenses to discipline by gaming regulators.

Planet Hollywood will pay $500,000 as soon as the Nevada Gaming Commission approves the settlement on July 23. If the board files no more complaints during the following year, the $250,000 final payment will be waived.

The control board has been trying since 2006 to get the gaming industry’s attention that hotel owners must be held accountable for the nightclubs, even if the clubs are leased and operated by others.

Last April 9, the industry was put on notice that disciplinary action was being considered because of serious problems at the nightclubs, and gaming licensees needed to take responsibility for the actions at the clubs and topless pools.

Apparently warning letters didn’t get the industry’s attention. “If I cannot get the attention of the industry through courtesy, I will get it through the investigative and disciplinary process,” said Gaming Control Board member Randall Sayre.

Opium Group, a Florida-based nightclub company, operates Privé. But Planet Hollywood holds the gaming license.

The maximum penalty for the nine-count complaint would have been $900,000 ($100,000 per count). However, Sayre said, “Planet Hollywood stepped directly to the plate and took this complaint very seriously and took their responsibility very seriously. They stepped to the plate and that’s why we didn’t ask for the maximum fine.”

Most of the incidents in the nine counts were actually reported in Planet Hollywood’s own security reports. “Obviously the word was not getting up to the owners so that they understood the gravity,” said Frank Schreck, the resort’s attorney. After Sayre called the owners in for a meeting, Schreck said, “The owners took draconian steps to assert control.”

The nine counts are nothing new; they’re the same problems being reported repeatedly at nightclubs.

The first five counts: Privé employees removing drunk customers and dumping them in the casino unattended, or telling hotel security to remove them. Customers had to be hospitalized for drinking too much. Drug use. Privé employees assaulted customers, physically and sexually. Patrons did the same. Minors were admitted and served too much liquor.

Count six involved a citation to the club by the Clark County Department of Business License for allowing topless and lewd activity and failing to cooperate with the county.

Count eight was based on the big increase in fire rescue and police calls to Planet Hollywood after Privé opened. Prostitution activity also went up around the club and nothing was done to discourage it. And the hotel didn’t do anything about Privé hiring people with criminal records.

Planet Hollywood admitted to all the allegations and conceded count nine was right, it didn’t maintain enough control.

But Schreck said that has now changed. The lease with Privé has been rewritten and Planet Hollywood security officers, who formerly weren't allowed to enter the club without a club employee, now can enter the club.

The lease was rewritten so Planet Hollywood can terminate the lease if the conduct outlined in the nine counts continues.

Now minors are still going to drink in nightclubs, young adults are still going to get drunk and sick. Drug use won't disappear.

But this practice of dumping drunk or drugged customers into the casino, or a cab, or even in a parking lot needs to stop. And if it takes $500,000 fines to get the notice of casino owners, then so be it.

It does bring disrepute to Nevada when nightclubbers go home and tell the friends how they got drunk and found themselves tossed out like garbage.