Wedding Bells for Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, Set to Marry Aristocrat Gaming Executive

Posted on: August 10, 2018, 08:30h. 

Last updated on: August 24, 2018, 10:28h.

Cort Smith Read More
Expertise: Sports Betting, Sports.

Nevada governor Brian Sandoval will make a little bit of history when he marries Las Vegas native Lauralyn McCarthy this weekend.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval will wed Aristocrat gaming executive Lauralyn McCarthy this weekend. (Image: Jason Bean/RGJ)

When the two say “I do” on Saturday, it will mark the first time in 154 years that a Nevada governor has heard wedding bells while actively sitting in office. The location is being kept under wraps.

Currently winding up his second and final term as governor of the Silver State, the 55-year-old Sandoval had his office announce the nuptials on Tuesday, just months after finalizing the divorce from his wife of 27 years in February.

The ceremony will take place in Sin City, although few other details have been made available to the public.

The happy couple requests privacy for themselves and their families during this special time,” a statement from the governor’s office read.

While McCarthy, 48, is not a prominent public figure, she’s been a well-known and respected executive in the gaming industry for 24 years, and is now a marketing bigwig.

Nevada’s New First Lady

McCarthy is a Las Vegas local, currently acting as vice president of new markets for Aristocrat Technologies, Inc. According to their website, the company is a gaming equipment provider with more than 5,000 employees, operating in 90 different countries around the world. Its global headquarters is now in Las Vegas.

A journalism graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, McCarthy is also a board member for Global Gaming Women, which helps to support and develop women in the gaming industry. In an article for their site, McCarthy discussed how she helped to expand her company’s gaming operations in South America.

“My first landing was in Peru, where Fujimori was sending military personnel with machine guns to find the revolutionary Shining Path in the neighborhoods I was visiting,” she wrote. “Bombs occasionally went off, sometimes at casinos.”

Sandoval may only have a few months left in office, but the new first lady plans to make the most of that time. While the governor’s ex-wife worked with youth charities, McCarthy is expected to use the platform to support people with disabilities, according to Sandoval’s spokeswoman: the bride-to-be has two severely disabled siblings herself and is passionate about the cause.

What’s Next for Sandoval?

The governor will officially wrap up his eight years in office in January, 2019.

He presided over a period which saw Las Vegas land its first-ever professional sports franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights. He was also instrumental in the decision to use public money to help lure the Oakland Raiders to Vegas, where they’ll be playing in time for the 2020 NFL season.

The governor has been reticent about revealing what his next move may be once he leaves office, but as a moderate Republican with a media-friendly look and personality, he has what it takes to take on Washington politics in the future if he so chooses. He was the first Hispanic to hold statewide office in Nevada.

He was also the state’s attorney general (like current GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt) and the youngest-ever Nevada Gaming Commission chairman when he was appointed in 1999 at the age of 35.

After FBI director James Comey was fired earlier this year, some speculated that Sandoval’s experience would make him an ideal candidate for that job, but it ultimately went to current director Christopher Wray.

With his soon-to-be wife’s insider gaming industry access and his own extensive legal and regulatory background in the same, it’s possible he could do anything from lobbying for the industry to taking on a high-level position with a high-profile casino company as well.