Casino Marker Defense in Las Vegas

A marker is a credit instrument, and Nevada treats it as a check

When a licensed casino extends credit at the table, the paper signed in exchange is a credit instrument. Most people who sign one understand it as a form of borrowing — a line of credit, settled later, the way a hotel folio is settled at checkout. Nevada law does not stop there. The state’s bad-check statute, NRS 205.130(1)(e), expressly reaches a check or draft passed to obtain “credit extended by any licensed gaming establishment.” The instrument signed at a Las Vegas table sits inside the same statute that covers a check written without sufficient funds anywhere else in the state.

That single point is where almost every page written on this subject begins and ends. It deserves more than a sentence, because nearly every consequence that follows — the deadline, the dollar threshold, the classification, the restitution order — flows from that statutory placement rather than from anything specific to gaming. Once you see the marker as a check in the eyes of NRS chapter 205, the structure of a marker case stops being mysterious and becomes something you can read for yourself.

The practical effect is that a marker matter is not purely a civil collection question between a guest and a property. Nevada has attached criminal machinery to it, and that machinery runs on its own timetable, with its own numbers, whether or not the person who signed is still in the state or aware that anything has happened.

The notice period is five days, not ten

This is the number to get right, and it is the number most often stated incorrectly.

NRS 205.132(1)(b) provides that intent to defraud is presumed unless the drawer pays the instrument in full, plus handling charges, within 5 days after receiving notice. Not ten days. Several Las Vegas pages describe a ten-day window; if you have been counting on ten, you have been working from a figure the statute does not contain.

The mechanism is worth understanding, because it explains why the period matters so much. Intent to defraud is an element the State would otherwise have to establish. The statute creates a presumption of that element, and payment inside the five-day window is what keeps the presumption from arising. The deadline is therefore not an administrative courtesy or a grace period bolted on for convenience. It goes to the substance of what the State has to prove.

Two details deserve care. First, the statute measures the five days from receiving notice, not from the date the notice was written or mailed. When notice was actually received is a question of fact, and in a case where the addresses on file are stale — a hotel address, a previous home, a business that has moved — it can be a live question. Second, the statute speaks of payment in full plus handling charges. A partial payment is not the thing the statute describes.

If you have received a notice, keep it, and keep the envelope. The date it bears and the date it reached you are among the very few pieces of evidence about timing that a person tends to hold in their own hands.

The two-year presentment window

The second timing rule in NRS 205.132(1)(b) is one that competitor pages routinely leave out altogether.

The statute provides that a credit instrument is presented “in the usual course of business” if it is presented not more than 2 years after issuance. That phrase — in the usual course of business — is a condition on how the statute operates, and two years is how Nevada defines it for credit instruments.

The practical consequence is that a marker signed on a trip long past is neither automatically stale nor automatically live. Two years is a real outer boundary written into the statute, and dates matter. People sometimes discover a marker years after the fact, when a warrant surfaces during a background check, a traffic stop, or an attempt to board a flight. In that situation the issuance date, the presentment date, and the notice date are three separate facts, and they do not always line up the way anyone assumes.

The two-year presentment window is also a distinct question from the criminal statute of limitations, which is governed by different provisions and is not addressed on this page. If your dates fall anywhere near either boundary, that is a question to put to a Nevada attorney with the actual paperwork in front of them, not one to settle from a website.

The $1,200 threshold and the 90-day aggregation rule

Nevada’s felony line for this offense is $1,200. At or above that figure the offense is a felony; below it, absent qualifying priors, it is not.

The aggregation rule is what surprises people. The $1,200 can be reached by a single instrument, or by a series of instruments passed in Nevada within a 90-day period, added together. Someone who signed four markers of $400 each across one weekend in Las Vegas has not stayed under the line by keeping each one small. Four hundred dollars, four times, inside ninety days, is $1,600, and $1,600 is over the threshold.

This matters for two reasons. It means the felony question in a marker case is often not about any one piece of paper but about a set of them and the dates they carry. And it means the arithmetic is worth doing carefully and early: which instruments, signed on which dates, at which properties, and whether they in fact fall inside the same 90-day span. Those are factual questions with documentary answers, and they are among the first things worth establishing.

What a category D felony carries

A casino marker offense at or above the threshold is a category D felony. Nevada sets the punishment for that category in NRS 193.130(2)(d).

The last row is deliberately left open rather than filled in with a figure. The classification and penalty below the threshold are set by NRS 205.130 and are not stated here, because putting an unverified number on a page a frightened person may act on is a real harm rather than a cosmetic one. Ask a lawyer for it, or read the section directly.

Restitution is a separate exposure from the fine, and is addressed below.

Three prior convictions, and why the amount stops mattering

NRS 205.130(2) contains a provision that anyone reading only the dollar threshold will miss entirely: three prior convictions under that section make the offense a category D felony regardless of the amount.

The effect is that the $1,200 line, which does most of the work in a first case, does none of it here. A marker of a few hundred dollars carries the same category D exposure — 1 to 4 years, a fine of up to $5,000 — as one many times larger, if the prior-conviction provision applies.

Anyone with previous bad-check history in Nevada, whether or not it involved a casino, should treat the prior-conviction question as a first-order issue rather than a footnote. What counts as a qualifying prior, and whether a particular disposition on your record is one, turns on the specific court records. It is worth pulling those records rather than working from memory.

The Clark County District Attorney’s Bad Check Unit

Marker matters in Las Vegas are handled through the Clark County District Attorney’s Bad Check Unit, which operates a diversion program. Its number is (702) 671-4701.

What the unit seeks in a diversion posture has three components:

• 100% of the face value of the instrument.
• Up to $25 per check in costs.
• A statutory administrative fee set by NRS 205.471, which scales with the amount of the instrument.

The NRS 205.471 fee schedule runs in tiers: $25 for instruments of $100 or less; then $50, $75, and $150 at successive intermediate bands; $500 for the $2,500.01 to $10,000 band; and 10% of face value above $10,000. The exact dollar boundaries of the three intermediate bands are set out in the statute itself, and if your instrument falls in that middle range it is worth reading the section rather than estimating.

Two observations about the arithmetic. First, on a large marker the 10% tier is not a rounding item: on a $40,000 instrument the administrative fee alone is $4,000, on top of face value and costs. Second, these are diversion figures. They are not the fine, and they are not restitution. A person can be looking at more than one of these numbers at once, and working out which is which — before agreeing to anything — is worth the time it takes.

Whether diversion is available in a particular matter, and whether entering it is the right decision, are questions for counsel. This page does not suggest that paying resolves a case, because whether it does is a matter of practice and prosecutorial discretion rather than a rule you can read off the statute.

Restitution is mandatory

NRS 205.130(1) provides that the court shall order restitution. That word carries weight. Restitution here is not something the court weighs and may decline; the statute directs it.

The consequence is that restitution belongs in the picture from the beginning rather than arriving as a surprise at sentencing. It is separate from the fine of up to $5,000 that attaches to a category D felony under NRS 193.130(2)(d), and separate again from any sum paid through the Bad Check Unit’s diversion program. Those are three distinct financial exposures, governed by three different provisions, and they are frequently blurred together in general descriptions of marker cases.

Anyone trying to understand what a marker matter might cost should ask counsel to separate them explicitly and say which ones apply to their situation.

If you live outside Nevada

Most people who sign markers in Las Vegas do not live in Las Vegas. A great many marker matters therefore involve someone who is at home in another state, has received something in the mail, and is trying to work out how seriously to take it.

Two things can be said plainly. An outstanding warrant in Clark County is a serious matter, and it does not improve by being left alone. And the statutory clocks described above — the five days in NRS 205.132(1)(b), the 90-day aggregation period in NRS 205.130, the two-year presentment window — do not pause because a person is out of state or unaware.

What this page will not do is describe what happens next in mechanical terms. The specifics of how an out-of-state warrant is handled are not set out here, because they are not something to guess at, and a wrong description on a page like this could lead someone toward a decision they cannot undo. Speak to a Nevada attorney about your own file, and do it sooner rather than later, so that the decision gets made with information rather than around it.

If you are not a United States citizen

A marker matter involving a foreign national raises questions beyond the criminal case itself — immigration status, future admissibility, and travel. Those questions are real, they interact with how a criminal matter is resolved, and they are not answered here.

No immigration consequence is stated on this page, because the answer depends on status, history, and the precise disposition, and a general statement would be worse than none. Anyone in that position should get advice that addresses the criminal matter and the immigration question together, before agreeing to any disposition, rather than resolving one and discovering the other afterward.

What is worth establishing early

Whatever the posture of your matter, a short list of facts does most of the work:

• The date each instrument was signed, and at which property.
• The total amount of all instruments signed in Nevada, and whether they fall inside a single 90-day span.
• The date any notice was received, as distinct from the date it was written or postmarked.
• The date of presentment, and whether it falls inside the 2-year window in NRS 205.132(1)(b).
• Any prior bad-check convictions in Nevada, confirmed against court records rather than recollection.
• Whether a warrant has issued.

Those six items drive the threshold question, the felony question, the presumption question, and the urgency question. They are also all documentary, which means they can be established rather than argued about.

Talking to us

Yi Lin Zheng handles casino marker matters at Vegas Golden Law, at 500 Rose Street in Las Vegas. Consultations are free, and the office answers seven days a week, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, at 702-385-7170. If you are out of state, or if there may already be a warrant, a phone call is a reasonable first step and costs nothing.

Nothing on this page is legal advice about your matter, and no page can be. It is written so that you can read the statutes yourself and ask better questions of whoever you hire.