Patrons stand to lose big if they fail to play by casino rules

Patrons stand to lose big if they fail to play by casino rules
By Kari Andren, TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Not everyone barred from entering a Pennsylvania casino committed a crime.

In fact, most of those banned voluntarily added themselves to the list because of compulsive gambling problems. As of Dec. 1, more than 3,120 people asked to be barred from the state's casinos for a year, five years or life.

Fifty-six percent of those on the list banned themselves for one year; 19 percent opted for a five-year ban and 25 percent chose lifetime exclusion. Since the self-exclusion list started in November 2006, records show 436 known violations.

Violating the voluntary ban nets a trespassing charge -- a summary offense -- but can escalate with repeated offenses, said Liz Lanza, director of state Gaming Control Board's Office of Compulsive and Problem Gambling.

Unlike those banned from casinos for wrongdoing, whose photos and offenses are public, officials guard the privacy of people on the voluntary list. Only high-level employees at the casinos and the gaming board know their identities, Lanza said.

To be voluntarily banned, an individual must appear at one of the board's regional offices or any casino, present government-issued ID and fill out paperwork. The state provides the information and a photograph to casinos statewide.

A person remains on the list until he or she requests removal, regardless of the length of their ban.

If Kerry Allan Laverde passed through the shimmering glass doors of the Rivers Casino to place a wager, he could find himself in a scenario right out of the movies.

Above the casino floor, security officers in a closely guarded surveillance room watch a bank of computers using face-recognition software that would detect Laverde's presence.

Speaking into the ear pieces of their counterparts on the casino floor, the security officers would tell them that Laverde -- one of 45 people banned from Pennsylvania's 10 casinos for offenses ranging from cheating at blackjack and stealing chips to leaving children unattended -- is in the house.

Officers would descend on Laverde, whisk him away and then turn him over to state troopers stationed at the gaming hall.

"It's not a place to come and hide, with all the cameras that are in here," said Rivers General Manager Craig Clark, surveying the casino's 3,000 slot machines and 108 tables that are under constant human and electronic scrutiny.

Casino camera systems are so sophisticated that they can peer inside a woman's purse, said Hamid Kreidie, a King of Prussia-based security consultant. Face-recognition technology is so advanced that the software could identify even an offender who had facial surgery, said Ken Braunstein, a security consultant and professor emeritus at University of Nevada, Reno.

Clark's wagering world leaves many things to chance. But some sure bets exist.

If you break the rules, Pennsylvania gambling regulators will ban you from every casino in the state and likely file criminal charges. If you try to return, you'll be caught and prosecuted.

Just ask Laverde, a former Swissvale police officer who conspired with two others to exploit a poker machine software glitch at the Meadows Racetrack and Casino in North Strabane, causing it to pay double jackpots. The men won nearly $430,000 between June and August 2009, records show.

Laverde, 52, of Swissvale and Patrick Loushil, 45, of Brookline pleaded guilty and received three years' probation. Federal prosecutors charged the third man, Andre Nestor, 40, of Swissvale with the same crime in Las Vegas, and he awaits trial there.

Laverde would not comment about the case, but said, "I have no interest in any casino anywhere in the country."

Meadows officials declined a request to be interviewed for this story.

The list grows

Last month, the state Gaming Control Board expanded the list of those banned when they voted to add six people.

Among the newly banned are Charles H. Baker, 54 of Wheeling, W.Va., and Kevin B. Pendleton, 47, of South Franklin in Washington County. Records show the Meadows cited them for violations.

Baker, a casino employee, and Pendleton, a patron, were arrested for cheating at craps between May 30 and June 11 to win about $6,256. Both were admitted to a first-time offenders program and each was ordered to pay $3,128 in restitution, plus court costs.

With the start of table games at state casinos in July 2010, new scams emerged. That's the year the state began banning violators.

Card counting, a complex strategy players use primarily in blackjack to keep a running tally of high and low cards in play, led to several bannings. Officials barred others for capping bets, or adding chips to a bet that won, typically at a roulette wheel. They cited some for passing counterfeit cash or gambling chips.

Fifteen of the 45 people on the list left children, some as young as 15 months, outside casinos while they gambled.

"I am really remorseful for what I did. I'm not that type of mother," Sharon Balek, 36, of Philadelphia told a judge, admitting a gambling addiction led her to leave her 8- and 16-year-old daughters in her car outside Parx casino in Bensalem for five hours.

State Rep. Mike O'Brien, D-Philadelphia, introduced legislation making it a third-degree misdemeanor to leave a child younger than 14 unattended in a vehicle at a casino. The House approved the measure in early December and it awaits Senate action.

Some of the incidents that led to bannings had nothing to do with actually gambling.

Steven Min, 37, of Cherry Hill, N.J., was arrested in 2010 for posing on Craigslist as a casino official seeking massage therapists to cater to high rollers at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem. Min was banned in 2011 after nine arrests for incidents at casinos in Bensalem, Bethlehem, Chester, Philadelphia, Wilkes-Barre and Washington, records show.

Min said he never claimed to work for Sands, but he told a woman he interviewed that he owns taxis in Manhattan and planned to bring clients to the casino.

Min, who said he's barred from casinos in New Jersey, Mississippi, Illinois and Indiana, said he thinks officials are threatened by knowledge he gained while working as a casino host in Atlantic City.

The numbers

With 16, Parx Casino has had the most incidents that banned players. Presque Isle Downs in Erie and SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia have not barred any gamblers, but that doesn't mean their security is any better or worse, said gaming board spokesman Richard McGarvey.

"At this point, it just happens that nothing has come forward ... for those two particular casinos," he said.

Pennsylvania has banned more gamblers than Nevada, which has barred 33 people from its 449 casinos -- only the most notorious offenders, said David Salas, deputy chief of the Nevada Gaming Commission's enforcement division.

"If we were to put everybody in the black book who was convicted of (one offense) ... we'd need a truck to haul it around," Salas said.

New Jersey has banned 205 from its 12 casinos since its list began in 1979.

Pennsylvania's banned gamblers stay on the list until they successfully petition gambling regulators to be removed, said communications director Doug Harbach, who added that the board hasn't taken anyone off the list.

Casinos lose if they fail to keep out banned gamblers.

Harrah's Chester received a $10,000 fine on Dec. 20 for allowing someone on the voluntary ban list to enter the casino twice in recent months. The Meadows faced $30,000 in fines for permitting entrance in December 2009 and July 2010 to people who voluntarily banned themselves.

Rivers security officer Christina Ober has to multitask in her job of monitoring the casino floor. A criminal justice student and Beaver native, she constantly scans three monitors, reviews incident reports and studies photos of banned gamblers.

Outside, Ober's counterpart, Theodore Gilder of Pittsburgh, patrols the perimeter of the 450,000-square-foot casino, watching traffic and looking for anyone trying to sneak inside.

"I expect the best, but the worst is possible," he said