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 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.