Lawsuit against Mirage cancels lawyer's dinner

Las Vegas attorney Michael Schaefer tried to get his credit line at Mirage Resorts Inc., extended from $2,500 to $5,000 and subsequently sued the gaming giant after it canceled his casino credit altogether.

Schaefer, a stockholder in Mirage Resorts, said he filed the lawsuit in District Court on April 8 to get resort officials to reconsider their decision. Now Mirage doesn't want his business at all.

In a letter from Mirage Resorts attorney Mark Russell dated Wednesday, Schaefer was banned from all five local Mirage resorts, including the Bellagio where Schaefer has tickets to attend Saturday night's 11th Annual UNLV Foundation dinner.

"This is just so petty -- they want me to drop my lawsuit," Schaefer said Thursday, shortly after a visiting District Court judge refused to grant a temporary restraining order that would have allowed him to go to the dinner.

The Mirage made its decision to ban Schaefer based on a broad Nevada trespassing law that has long been used by casinos to bar just about anyone they want for just about any reason.

In addition to his credit denial lawsuit, Schaefer is an appellant counselor in a pending Nevada Supreme Court case that could diminish the power of the state trespassing law. That suit seeks to overturn Scott vs. Justice Court of Lake Tahoe, a 1968 case that upheld the trespassing law being used to arrest casino patrons.

The Mirage denies doing anything improper in its decisions not to extend Schaefer's credit and to refuse further business from him.

"It was our judgment not to increase his line of credit -- it was a business decision," Russell said. "This matter has been going on for some time."

Schaefer's credit line and check-cashing privileges at Mirage Resorts were canceled on March 10. Russell declined to discuss why that was done, but he noted that Mirage Resorts returned a $5,000 check that Schaefer had sent them to support his credit line.

Schaefer says he still has $5,000 credit lines at nine other local casinos, including the Monte Carlo, which is half owned by Mirage Resorts. Schaefer enjoys baccarat, single-zero roulette and other medium-stakes table games.

The UNLV dinner aside, Schaefer, an entertainment lawyer and real estate investor, is concerned that his being banned from the Mirage, Bellagio, Treasure Island and the Golden Nuggets downtown and in Laughlin will affect his law practice.

He is required to attend Clark County Bar Association-sponsored continual legal education classes that are held at the Golden Nugget downtown. Many of his clients are frequent guests at Mirage properties and set up meetings with him at the hotels. The Mirage Resorts stockholders' meeting also is held at a Mirage resort.

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