In Nevada, casinos are required to keep their facilities safe for patrons, visitors, and employees. If you were injured due to a dangerous condition in a casino, you can bring a lawsuit to recover money damages.
For a Nevada court to find a casino liable for your injuries, you need to prove:
- A hazard existed on the casino grounds; and
- The property owner/manager was aware (or should have been aware) of the hazard; and
- The hazard caused your injuries.
To help you better understand lawsuits for claims against casinos, our Nevada personal injury lawyers discuss:
- 1. Who can I sue if I am injured in a Las Vegas casino?
- 2. How do I prove a casino’s negligence?
- 3. What is the duty of care owed by a casino?
- 4. When is a casino liable for its employees’ actions?
- 5. What damages can I recover?
- 6. What to Do After an Accident
- Additional Resources
You may also wish to review our related articles on Lawsuits for Nevada Hotel Injuries and Claims for Nevada Restaurant Injuries.
Las Vegas hotels and casino floors are the site of many slip and fall accidents that cause severe hand, hip, leg, neck, back, and traumatic brain injuries.
1. Who can I sue if I am injured in a Las Vegas casino?
If you are injured in a Las Vegas casino accident or hotel accident, you may have a claim against several parties. Ten potentially liable people and entities include:
- The casino,
- The casino’s staff,
- The casino management and casino owners,
- The casino’s property owners,
- The hotel in which a casino is located,
- The parent company of the hotel or casino (often a large corporation),
- The casino’s liability insurance company,
- A third-party company providing security for the casino,
- A company or individual who provided the casino with a defective product in Nevada, or
- A casino patron(s).
2. How do I prove a casino’s negligence?
Four elements need to be proved in order for you to win a negligence claim against a Nevada casino:
- The casino owed you a duty of care (such as keeping the premises safe);
- The casino breached that duty;
- The breach was the legal cause of your injuries; and.
- As a result of the breach, you suffered damages.1
You can claim negligence in all kinds of casino accident cases, such as:
- Slip-and-falls,
- Food poisonings,
- Swimming pool drownings,
- Shuttle-bus accidents,
- Parking lot accidents,
- Elevator or escalator falls,
- Burns from hot drinks, bathwater, or toxic chemicals, and/or
- Assaults from security or other patrons.
3. What is the duty of care owed by a casino?
Nevada premises liability law requires casino operators to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. This duty extends to all areas of the casino, including parking areas, bathrooms and walkways.
Furthermore, casinos have the duty to reasonably protect against all foreseeable injuries. Fortunately, Nevada courts take a broad view of foreseeability.2
Courts recognize that even a small piece of torn carpeting, an uneven step, or worn furniture can be enough to cause a serious injury. Even if you were partly to blame for your injury (such as by not paying attention), Nevada’s comparative fault laws allow you to still recover damages as long as you were no more than 50% at fault.3
See our related article on negligent security claims in Nevada.
Broken stools and spilled beverages are common causes of claims against Las Vegas casinos
4. When is a casino liable for its employees’ actions?
A Nevada casino is vicariously liable for injuries caused by employees when they:
- were performing their regular job duties, and
- were negligent.4
Example: Ben suffers a spinal cord injury and brain injury after he slips on a wet floor at a Las Vegas casino. Ben’s fall injury could have been prevented had the waitress working the floor cleaned the spill immediately. Since the waitress was negligent while performing her job duties, her employer – the casino – can be held liable.
If the casino employee who harmed you was not qualified or suitable to be working there to begin with, you can also sue the casino for negligent hiring, retention, or supervision:5
Example: A casino ignores several complaints about a security guard sexually harassing patrons. Later, the security guard sexually assaults a customer in the parking lot. The customer can then sue the casino because it negligently retained his services after receiving notice that he posed a danger.
5. What damages can I recover?
If you have been injured as the result of a casino’s negligence, you are entitled to recover compensatory damages. This includes (without limitation):
- Payment of medical bills, including hospitalization, rehab, and medicines,
- Lost wages from missed work,
- Lost earning capacity,
- Pain and suffering (which comprises emotional distress, mental anguish, loss of quality of life, disfigurement, and inconvenience), and/or
- Funeral expenses in wrongful death cases.
Additionally, if you were injured by an intentionally wrongful action of a casino, you may be entitled to recover punitive damages (“exemplary damages”). Punitive damages may also be appropriate if the casino knew about the hazards but chose to do nothing to fix them.
Note that casinos may present a low-ball offer at the outset to make the case go away. Then if you refuse, casinos may try to intimidate you with their bullying team of litigators and risk managers.
That is why you are encouraged to retain an experienced personal injury attorney to fight for the largest settlement possible under the law.
6. What to Do After an Accident
If you are injured in a Las Vegas casino, take the following five steps:
- Use your phone to photograph and videotape the scene, your injuries, and anything else that might be relevant.
- Take down the contact information of any eyewitnesses.
- Seek medical attention right away, even if you feel uninjured. Sometimes injuries manifest days or weeks after an accident.
- DO NOT ADMIT FAULT. Even if you believe you were to blame, you could be wrong.
- Hire an attorney to fight for the highest possible monetary award in your case, as this chart illustrates:
Do not delay in retaining legal counsel. The statute of limitations to bring a personal injury lawsuit in Nevada is only two years, and it takes time to craft a winning case.6
Additional Resources
For recent news stories regarding Las Vegas casino injuries, refer to the following:
- Rogue roulette ball hits gambler in eye at off-Strip casino, lawsuit alleges – Las Vegas Review-Journal.
- South Jersey native hospitalized after diving accident with Cirque du Soleil – Courier Post.
- Widow of man killed on Las Vegas hotel escalator sues Boyd Gaming – Fox 5 KVVU.
- Drone injured woman’s eye at Las Vegas casino July 4th party, lawsuit says – ABC News.
- Construction worker injured at Fontainebleau Las Vegas – ABC 13 KTNV.
Legal references:
- Turner v. Mandalay Sports Entertainment, (2008) 124 Nev. 213, 180 P.3d 1172; Scialabba v. Brandise Construction Co., (1996) 112 Nev. 965, 921 P.2d 928; Perez v. Las Vegas Med. Ctr., (1991) 107 Nev. 1, 4, 805 P.2d 589. For example, casinos have a duty to (without limitation):
• Take all reasonable food preparation and storage precautions to ensure food safety and prevent food poisoning, E. coli, and salmonella,
•. Not serve alcohol to severely intoxicated patrons, whether in casinos, dining areas, or nightclubs,
• Keep the fixtures and furniture stable and in good repair (particularly if they see heavy use such as restaurant tables),
• Maintain safety of chairs, whether at gaming tables, bars, restaurants, buffets, arenas, stadiums, showrooms, or bathrooms,
• Clean up spills promptly to prevent slip hazards,
• Keep hallways free of debris,
• Keep stairs even and maintain their handrails,
• Maintain adequate security,
• Maintain even floors and grounds (no torn or loose carpet),
• Maintain elevators and escalators (which could cause people to fall suddenly should they malfunction and stop short),
• Provide adequate lighting in parking structures,
• Keep hotel rooms free of bed bugs,
• Keep pools and spas clean and safe,
• Keep construction zones marked,
• Keep water from any faucets at a lukewarm temperature to prevent burns,
• Maintain safety of casino garages and ground transportation (such as shuttles and buses) for pedestrians and passengers to prevent car accidents,
• De-ice sidewalks,
• Cover potholes,
• Be able to provide reasonable aid in an emergency, and
• Comply with state and federal anti-discrimination laws. - Humphries v. New York, New York, (2017) 133 Nev. Advance Opinion 77; see, for example, NRS 651.015 on the civil liability of innkeepers for injury or death to non-employees.
- NRS 41.141.
- See for example Hall v. SSF (1996) Inc., 112 Nev. 1384.
- See for example Wright v. Watkins and Shepard Trucking, Inc (2013) 972 F.Supp.2d 1218.
- NRS 11.190.