Pennsylvania fines Parx Casino for allowing underage gambler to play craps
Pennsylvania fined the Bensalem casino for allowing an 18-year-old man to sneak into the property to play the dice game.
In seven minutes, the underage gambler placed two $25 bets at a Parx Casino craps table. He lost both wagers. But the the brief incident ended up costing the casino much more.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday assessed $12,500 in penalties on Parx for allowing the 18-year-old man to sneak into the Bensalem casino last year. Despite showing a table games supervisor an ID for somebody who was also underage, he was allowed to place bets.
The consent agreement was the casino’s second underage gaming violation in three years.
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Parx officials said the 18-year-old, who was not identified in the consent agreement, arrived at the casino a little after midnight with three friends. The friends “intentionally” concealed the underage man as he entered the casino unnoticed by security guards, said Grace Flanagan, associate vice president of legal and regulatory affairs.
A few minutes later, the man sat down at a craps table. The “box man” supervising the dice game asked for identification. The gambler provided his elder brother’s driver’s license. Though his 20-year-old brother was also underage — it is illegal for anyone under 21 to gamble in Pennsylvania — the casino employee allowed the man to wager.
“He just basically blanked on the arithmetic,” Steven Fayne, vice president of table games at Parx, said about the table supervisor. Moments later, the box man realized his error and asked to see the ID again. When the violation was discovered, the 18-year-old was turned over to Pennsylvania State Police and cited for underage gambling.
Parx officials said three security officers and two table games personnel received coaching, written counseling, or written warnings after the incident.
The casino also increased training for personnel to act on their suspicions of an underage patron, and to carefully check IDs.
“In this case, our employees did not do that,” said Fayne. “They requested the card, looked at the date, and just blanked on the date.”