- The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) has granted key executive licenses to MGM CFO Jonathan Halkyard and Venetian CEO Patrick Nichols
- Both served provisionally for years while exhaustive background checks delayed final approval
- Nichols was pressed on compliance amid Strip casinos’ recent money‑laundering scandals
Two of the Strip’s most powerful executives — Jonathan Halkyard of MGM Resorts International and Patrick Nichols of The Venetian — have cleared Nevada’s regulatory gauntlet. On Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) unanimously approved both men for key executive licenses, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. several years after both had already stepped into their corporate roles.
In Nevada, anyone with direct influence over casino operations must hold a key executive license, a credential designed to guarantee integrity, financial responsibility, and compliance with gaming law.
The process is notoriously slow: exhaustive background checks comb through litigation history, financial records, and international business ties. Executives are allowed to assume their posts while applications are pending, though they remain “provisional” until regulators sign off.
Halkyard has been MGM’s chief financial officer since January 2021. Nichols took over as president and chief executive officer of the Venetian in August 2022. Both have spent years in provisional status, able to handle corporate finance and strategy, but barred from exercising final authority over regulated gaming operations until Thursday’s vote.
House-Favored Applicants
Halkyard’s résumé stretches back to Harrah’s Lake Tahoe in 1999, from which he rose to CFO of Caesars Entertainment in 2006 before stints at NV Energy and Extended Stay America.
Nichols joined the Venetian in 2008 — just after the Palazzo opened and he graduated Cornell University — helping to launch Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. He became Senior VP of Strategy and Business Development at the Cosmopolitan in 2018, after serving as the property’s director of strategic planning since it opened in 2010. He returned to the Venetian as president and CEO in 2022, under new owner Apollo Global Management.
During Thursday’s hearing, according to the R-J, NGC commissioner George Markantonis pressed Nichols on compliance, noting recent money-laundering scandals at Resorts World, Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Resorts, Caesars Palace, and Fontainebleau.
“I do not sit on our compliance committee, but I’ve attended every meeting since I’ve been at the resort,” he replied. “There’s no one customer, no one decision worth my reputation, the state’s reputation, or the Venetian’s reputation. Our compliance posture starts with me, and the team knows that.”
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