The Supreme Court of Nevada ruled that the Nevada trade secret
law does not preclude a defendant from demonstrating that
information is readily ascertainable and therefore not a trade
secret even when the defendant acquired the information by improper
means. MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC v. Peppermill Casinos, Inc.,
Case No. 70319 (Supr. Ct. Nev., May 3, 2018) (en banc)
(Cherry, J).
The issue arose when Ryan Tor, a Peppermill employee, went to
the Grand Sierra Resort owned by MEI-GSR Holdings and was caught
using a slot machine key to access several of GSR's slot
machines. The Nevada Gaming Control Board investigated the matter
and found that Tor had accessed the machines to obtain their
"par value." A par value is a gaming industry term for
the theoretical percentage that the casino should retain. The
information for a single machine at any point in time is
essentially worthless, but the par value of an entire casino floor
can be very useful to a competitor.
