A new type of criminal profile could be soon making its way into Nevada gaming regulators’ infamous “Black Book” of excluded persons: the casino-based sex-trafficker.
On Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission will meet to decide whether to include prolific pimp Kendrick Laronte Weatherspoon on its list of persona non grata, reports The Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Black Book has previously been reserved for those caught cheating multiple times at casinos or individuals suspected of having, or known to have, links to organized crime.
But sex-trafficking is becoming an increasing problem in Las Vegas casinos, and if the commission wants to make an example of someone, Weatherspoon – who has a sickening rap sheet – is a prime candidate.
Violent Abuser
The 44-year-old has a history of violence against women and of forcing women into prostitution at Las Vegas casinos.
He has 30 cases in the Las Vegas Justice Court from 2000 to 2021 on charges that include drug dealing, impaired driving, burglary, domestic battery, sex-trafficking of an adult, battery by strangulation, sexual assault, kidnapping, and accepting the proceeds of prostitution.
He has been removed from at least five Las Vegas casinos for his activities, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
On one occasion, a sex worker who had been instructed by Weatherspoon to meet a customer at Paris failed to turn up. When she returned home, Weatherspoon was waiting for her to “batter her and sexually assault her,” according to a police report.
In another instance, a woman who tried to quit working as a prostitute was choked and raped by Weatherspoon after he showed up at her apartment.
During January’s control board meeting, Gibson said it was important to send a message to criminals who wanted to use Nevada’s casinos as a base for sex-trafficking.
“We’re not going to go out and exclude every felon in the state,” he said. “I mean, in this case, I guess, for my part, legal and highly regulated gaming cannot be associated with human trafficking, period, and that is the threat to the reputation of the state.”
Hoods and Cardsharps
The Black Book exists to blackball individuals who have “a notorious or unsavory reputation that would adversely affect public confidence and trust that the gaming industry is free from criminal or corrupt developments.”
It was created in 1960 to reassure tourists that Vegas casinos were not run by the mob, which wasn’t strictly true.
Among the assorted cardsharps and hoods to have graced its pages are the legendary gambler Archie Karas and Chicago crime boss Sam “The Cigar” Giancana.
If the commission decides to act, Weatherspoon will become the 36th entry in the book, and the first in almost four years. The last to grab that dubious honor were the four members of a craps cheating team that attempted to bilk the Bellagio out of $1.2 million.
The only way to get your name removed from the book is to die, as Giancana discovered on his 1975 assassination.
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