Pennsylvania casinos fined for allowing excluded gamblers to bet
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A problem gambler who had excluded herself from casinos entered the Wind Creek Bethlehem at 6:09 p.m. on a Monday night early last year. She spent 81 of the next 85 hours at the property, mostly playing midi-baccarat, a table game with dealers, before the casino flagged her at 6:55 am on Friday.
Over the course of four days in January 2021, she exchanged $10,495 in cash for chips. When she was confronted, she had $230 left, according to a consent agreement approved Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in which the Wind Creek property, formerly known as the Sands Bethlehem Casino, agreed to pay a $22,500 fine for allowing an excluded gambler to enter its premises.
Wind Creek was one of two casinos fined Wednesday by the gaming board for allowing self-excluded gamblers to wager, despite measures put in place to prevent such gamblers from entering casinos or from betting.
The Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Pa., was fined $10,000 Wednesday for allowing an excluded gambler to play slot machines for about an hour last June.
That Hollywood patron, who was not identified by the gaming board, was discovered when a cashier ran her name through a database as the patron was trying to cash a check. A review of surveillance video showed that the gambler had entered the casino earlier and was able to cash a $100 check because another cashier had neglected to check her name against the self-exclusion list.
That gambler, who told authorities she thought her 2016 self-exclusion had expired, was criminally charged with trespassing. The cashier who cashed the check was given “documented coaching.”
About 17,900 gamblers have excluded themselves from Pennsylvania casinos since the state legalized casino gambling in 2004, and casinos have employed increasingly sophisticated measures to screen patrons, including the use of facial recognition software. But the systems are not foolproof, and can be defeated by a determined gambler.
Under state’s rules, gamblers can voluntarily exclude themselves from gaming establishments for one year, five years, or a lifetime as a way to limit the temptation of gambling. Self-exclusions for one or five years years remain in effect until the self-excluded person requests removal from the list. A lifetime exclusion is irrevocable.
According to the consent agreement with Wind Creek, the casino uses a software system called Veridocs to scan and verify a person’s identity and to compare the photo with its watch list. “By uploading the self-exclusion list to the Veridocs ID scanning terminals, Wind Creek can identify self-exclusions before they enter the casino floor,” according to the consent agreement.
But not once during the individual’s four days in the casino -- she left only twice for a total of four hours -- did she use or present an identification. The casino calculated that she gambled at 21 different midi-baccarat tables for nearly 74 hours of the 81 hours she was on the gaming floor.
It was only after a table games pit manager notified casino security that she was discovered and escorted off the property. She was charged with “defiant trespass.”
The gaming board approved the consent agreement without comment or questions.
