The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approved Wednesday consent agreements between the PGCB’s Office of Enforcement Counsel and two licensed manufacturers plus four casino operators resulting in a total of $238,500 in fines. The Board also approved the placement of another adult on its Involuntary Exclusion List for choosing to gamble in a casino while leaving a young child in a car.
The consent agreements approved Wednesday involved:
- Gaming Partners International USA, Inc. and GPI Mexicana S.A. de C.V., fines each of $85,500, for failure to timely file audited financial statements
- Washington Trotting Association, LLC, operator of Hollywood Casino at the Meadows in Washington County, a fine of $40,000 for the overservice of alcohol
- Downs Racing, L.P., operator of Mohegan Sun Pocono Casino in Luzerne County, a fine of $10,000 for a self-exclusion violation
- Sugarhouse HSP Gaming, LP, operator of Rivers Casino Philadelphia, a fine of $10,000 for permitting an underaged individual to gain access to the gaming floor and gamble
- Holdings Acquisition Co., LP, operator of Rivers Casino Pittsburgh, a fine of $7,500 for using revoked software for certain slot machines.
Gaming Partners International USA, Inc. and GPI Mexicana S.A. de C.V. both hold Table Game Manufacturer Licenses. As such, each of the entities are required by law to submit an audited annual financial statement to the PGCB no later than 90 days after the end of its 2019 and 2020 fiscal years.
The Board discovered that the required reports for both entities were received late. Pursuant to PGCB precedent with incidents of late filings of audited financial statements by other licensed entities, a fine of $100 per day was assessed from the due date to the date in which the proper filings were received. This resulted in fines of $85,500 for each of the two license holders.
Washington Trotting Association was assessed a $40,000 fine for two incidents in which Hollywood Casino at the Meadows personnel served alcohol to visibly intoxicated persons.
In one incident, the patron was served 17 draft beers during a period of 12 hours 44 minutes which led to that individual falling and being injured. The second incident saw a patron served 5 mixed drinks, 3 shots and a beer in the period of 3 hours and 29 minutes and led to that individual physically assaulting two patrons and two security guards at the casino.
Pursuant to its PCGB-approved Compulsive and Problem Gambling Plan, Hollywood Casino at the Meadows must prevent visibly intoxicated patrons from entering and remaining on the gambling floor.
The $10,000 fine against Downs Racing, L.P. stemmed from an incident in which Mohegan Sun Pocono personnel failed to stop an individual on the PGCB’s Self-Exclusion list from both gambling at slot machines and cashing a check. Pursuant to PGCB regulations, a casino must identify self-excluded patrons and refuse gaming privileges and other gaming-related activities such as the cashing of checks.
The incident that led to a fine of $10,000 against Sugarhouse HSP Gaming, LP involved a 20-year-old individual who gained entrance to the gaming floor at Rivers Casino Philadelphia and participated in table games gambling.
The fine of $7,500 against Holdings Acquisition Co., LP stemmed from Rivers Casino Pittsburgh personnel failing to install replacement software on a dozen slot machines as instructed by the PGCB’s Bureau of Gaming Laboratory Operations. The failure did not result in any additional regulatory violations involving the legal play of those slot machines.
The Board was also presented with an incident in which an adult left a 7-year-old child in an unattended vehicle in the parking lot of Presque Isle Casino in Erie County while he gamed in the casino’s sportsbook facility. This behavior led to the approval today by the Board of the placement of this individual on the PGCB’s Involuntary Exclusion List that prohibits individuals from entering and gambling at all Pennsylvania casinos.
Since 2011, 135 individuals have been placed on the Involuntary Exclusion list for this type of incident.
The next meeting of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is scheduled for 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, May 18, 2022 in the PGCB’s Public Hearing Room located on the second floor of the Strawberry Square Complex in Harrisburg.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2022/04/15/62237-pennsylvania-regulator-fines-four-casinos-and-two-manufacturers-totaling–238k
