PA Gaming Control Board Levies $45,000 In Fines

Board also placed four adults on its involuntary exclusion list for gambling at casinos while leaving minors unattended

HARRISBURG, PA: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (“Board”) approved two consent agreements today presented by the Board’s Office of Enforcement Counsel (“OEC”) during its public meeting resulting in a total of $45,000 in fines:

•  Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC, operator of Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Dauphin County, a $40,000 fine for three instances in which individuals under the age of 21 accessed the gaming floor and gambled; and
•  Lightning Gaming, Inc., a licensed Slot Machine Manufacturer headquartered in Delaware County, PA, a $5,000 fine for failure to notify the Board of material changes to their financial status.

Copies of the approved consent agreements offering more details on these matters are available upon request through the Board’s Office of Communications.

The Board also acted on petitions filed by OEC to ban four adults from all casinos in the Commonwealth for leaving a total of six minors unattended in order to engage in gaming activities:

• A male patron was placed on the Involuntary Exclusion List after leaving a 1-year-old child unattended in a locked vehicle with an outside temperature of 84 degrees in the parking lot of Valley Forge Casino Resort in Montgomery County for 9 minutes to gamble in the sportsbook and at a table game. Pennsylvania State Police broke a car window to extract the child and the patron later attempted to flee in the vehicle, which contained illegal drugs, until police detained and removed him;
• A male patron was placed on the Involuntary Exclusion List after leaving two minors, aged 6 and 8, unattended in a vehicle in the parking lot of Live! Casino Pittsburgh in Westmoreland County for 13 minutes while he gambled at slot machines;
• A female patron was placed on the Involuntary Exclusion List after leaving two minors, aged 10 and 13, unattended in a vehicle in the parking garage of Live! Casino Philadelphia for 24 minutes while she gambled at slot machines; and,
• A female patron was placed on the Involuntary Exclusion List after leaving a 13-year-old unattended in the Sky Bridge hallway of Mohegan Pennsylvania Casino for 10 minutes while she gambled at slot machines.

The Board’s actions serve as a reminder that adults are prohibited from leaving minors unattended in the parking lot or garage, a hotel, or other venues at a casino since it creates a potentially unsafe and dangerous environment for the children.  Leaving minors unattended at a Pennsylvania casino also subjects the offending adult to criminal prosecution in addition to exclusion from all Pennsylvania casinos.  To compliment the efforts by casinos to mitigate this issue, the Board created an awareness campaign, “Don’t Gamble with Kids”.

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled for 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, December 13, 2023 in the Board’s Public Hearing Room located on the second floor of the Strawberry Square Complex in Harrisburg.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of gambling involving 17

casinos, online casino games, retail and online sports wagering, and Video Gaming Terminals (“VGTs”) at qualified truck stops, along with the regulation of online fantasy sports contests.

The land-based casino industry in Pennsylvania consists of six racetrack (Category 1) casinos, five stand-alone (Category 2) casinos, two resort (Category 3) casinos and four mini-casinos (Category 4).  A significant job generator in the Commonwealth, casinos and the other types of Board-regulated gaming generated over $2.3 billion in tax revenue during the 2022/2023 State Fiscal Year.

Additional information about both the PGCB’s regulatroy efforts and Pennsylvania’s gaming industry can be found at gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov . You can also follow the agency on X (formely Twitter) by choosing @PAGamingControl.

SOURCE: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.