Dwight Manley, the former sports agent and casino high roller who claims he was drugged while gambling at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, has doubled the reward he is offering for information leading to the conviction of the person who allegedly spiked his drink. What was once a $500,000 reward is now $1 million.
Manley and his friends flew from California to Las Vegas on a private jet in December 2020 and headed to the MGM Grand, where he had been a VIP for 30 years. Playing in the private high roller salon, Manley said he ordered an old fashioned, but complained that it tasted “dirty” and “bitter.” He asked for a different drink, but quickly felt odd and disoriented. He broke a glass ashtray and cut his hand, but did not receive proper first aid.
Manley did keep playing blackjack, and the casino kept extending him markers. According to the lawsuit he filed in November 2022 and amended in July 2023, the casino host – who he had known for five years – and the casino staff could tell Manley was acting erratically, but kept upping his credit limit.
After three hours, still not feeling well, Manley left with his friends and headed to the Venetian and accidentally left $500,000 on the table. They never made it to the next casino. Manley’s condition had deteriorated to the point where he could not stand without assistance, so he friends took him to his hotel room and got him into bed. He fell asleep at 5:15pm and woke up the next morning.
Thinking he had been drugged, Manley had his hair follicles tested for the presence of drugs when he got back home to California. Tests came back positive for ketamine, a short-term anesthetic that produces hallucinogenic effects.
On his website 1MillionReward.com, Manley says that to be eligible for the $1 million reward, the information leading to a conviction cannot be information already known in the investigation. Additionally, “If the arrest, charges and conviction could have been obtained without the information you provided, then you are not eligible for a reward. In determining whether the information led to the arrest, charges and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the Incident, the arrest, charges and conviction must have resulted primarily from the information you provided.”
If more than one person supplies the same information that leads to a conviction, the first person who provided it will receive the reward. If parts of multiple people’s info are used, then those people will split the $1 million.
