CA regulators look to shut down Mormon extremist-owned casino | The Sacramento Bee

California regulators are working to shut down a casino with ties to a Utah Mormon fundamentalist group known to practice polygamy, including marriages of girls as young as 15.

At first glance, Sahara Dunes Casino, doing business as Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino, doesn’t look like much.

It sits on I-15 between Los Angeles and San Diego, hundreds of miles from the glittering lights of Las Vegas. Only a plain red sign — reading “Casino Restaurant Cocktails” — identifies the building’s nature.

However, the casino is owned by Joseph and Ted Kingston, whose family also controls the Kingston Group, otherwise known as the Davis County Cooperative Society.

As reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, the Kingston Group also owns “a diverse portfolio of service, financial and agricultural operations in Utah and Idaho.”

Members of the group are known to conduct marriages of girls as young as 15, as well as marriages between cousins, according to the Tribune; the Tribune also reports that the group has drawn the attention of federal regulators, who allege that members have engaged in a multi-million-dollar tax fraud scheme.

CA regulators look to shut down Mormon extremist-owned casino | The Sacramento Bee