Self-exclusion Violation Leads To $10,000 Fine For PA Casino

HARRISBURG, PA: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today fined Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc., operator of the Parx Casino, $10,000 for providing a replacement players club card to a self-excluded person, permitting him access to the gaming floor on three separate occasions, and enabling him to play slot machines on one of the occasions without being identified.

The civil penalty was unanimously approved by the Board at its public meeting Thursday in Harrisburg as part of a consent agreement between the Board’s Office of Enforcement Counsel and the operator of the Bucks County casino.

In addition to the penalty, Parx agreed to institute policies and provide training, guidance and reinforcement training to its employees in order to minimize the opportunity for similar incidents to occur in the future.

The Self-Exclusion Program, which began in late 2006, is a tool that allows problem gamblers to ban themselves from gambling at Pennsylvania casinos. Once a person is placed on the Self-Exclusion List, gaming facilities in the Commonwealth must refuse wagers from, and deny gaming privileges to, a self-excluded person, including player’s club membership. In this instance, which occurred over three separate days in July of 2009, the self-excluded individual received a player’s card and later utilized it to play slot machines.

The issuance of the player’s card was a violation because the patron had not requested removal from the list and was thus still excluded from all casinos in Pennsylvania. While the individual was initially banned for a one year period, self-exclusion does not expire and remains in effect until the individual requests to be removed from the list by filing paperwork with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. To date, since the inception of the Self-Exclusion Program, there have been 1,342 requests to be placed on the list and 139 requests to be removed.

An individual who is on the Self-Exclusion List and enters a Pennsylvania casino is subject to arrest for trespass. In this case, the individual was identified by surveillance upon returning to the casino, escorted off the property and cited by the Pennsylvania State Police for criminal trespass.

The next regularly scheduled Board meeting is Thursday, May 13, 2010 in the North Office Building, Hearing Room 1 in Harrisburg. The meeting is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board was established in 2004 with the passage of Act 71, also known as the Race Horse Development and Gaming Act. Pennsylvania’s first new state agency in nearly 40 years, the Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of the state’s casino industry. To date, with nine of a maximum fourteen casinos in operation, legalized gaming in the Commonwealth has created over 8,000 new living wage jobs, revenue that has provided property tax reduction in each of the past two years for all homeowners, funds that have reinvigorated Pennsylvania’s horse racing industry, and new revenue to local governments that has funded scores of community projects. A wealth of information about the Gaming Control Board and Pennsylvania’s gaming industry can be found at www.pgcb.state.pa.us. At this web site, videos and information on the operation of the PGCB, problem gambling efforts and assistance, future meeting schedules and past meeting transcripts, an interactive map of casino locations, and a link to request a speaker are among the many items available.

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