Venetian Settles EEOC Claims of Religious Bias Against Workers

The EEOC agreed to a consent decree with the Venetian Las Vegas to resolve charges of widespread religious discrimination and retaliation since 2016 against workers of various faiths.

The decree, filed in the Nevada federal court and so far unsigned by a judge, requires the luxury resort and casino to provide monetary relief for workers who were denied religious accommodations, revise its accommodation policies, and retain a third-party monitor to audit compliance with the agreement.

The case suggests that religious employees and their attorneys feel emboldened to pursue discrimination cases after the US Supreme Court’s 2023 Groff v. DeJoy ruling raised the standard for employers to refuse religious accommodation requests. The EEOC similarly appears keen to take up such litigation under Acting Chair Andrea Lucas’ leadership.

The casino was mishandling accommodations requests “across the board,” Nicole St. Germain, a spokesperson for the EEOC’s Los Angeles office, said. She added that workers of “numerous” religions with different accommodation requests, such as requests for days off to observe religious holidays or to wear a beard at work, were improperly denied.

“Anybody that had an accommodation request, they were not engaging in the interactive process and they were not providing accommodations” even after the high court raised the threshold for employers under Groff, St. Germain said.

The high court’s ruling in Groff found that employers may only decline a religious accommodation request if granting it “would result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.” Though an EEOC lawsuit filed alongside the consent decree will not go to trial, the casino would have had to meet a higher standard to explain to a judge why it refused religious workers’ requests.

Lucas has touted the commission’s work so far under the Trump administration on religious bias cases and pledged to combat antisemitism on college campuses.

She said she hoped to make religion “a signature issue” of her work at the EEOC at a 2022 conference hosted by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. She told senators in a hearing this month that she was inspired to pursue employment law after her father lost his job in part for “speaking honestly about his faith.”

The Venetian complaint filed alongside the consent decree is at least the fourth religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to federal court dockets. Though the case will not go to trial, it appears to be the first lawsuit brought on behalf of a sweeping class of employees. But the agency issued a notice of conciliation failure in 2023, suggesting that it has been in talks with the casino for multiple years.

According to the suit, the employees denied religious accommodations by the Venetian “belonged to diverse faiths, including but not limited to Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Buddhism.”

The Venetian did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The decree stipulates that the Venetian does not admit to “any discrimination, retaliation, unlawful conduct or any wrongdoing.”

The case is US EEOC v. Venetian Las Vegas Gaming, LLC, D. Nev., 2:25-cv-01148, 6/26/25.