State launches shame campaign to stop underage gamblers

Bill Kearney

Massachusetts ‘GAMING’ Future

Here’s some public shame, how about putting mug shots up of all the people they cultivated into casino gambling degenerates who've became criminals because of their 24/7 gambling, free booze, cashing personal checks, interest free credit, free play, and those so-called freebies known as “COMPS” that make many justify their losses.

The Morning Call – July 14, 2016 - State launches shame campaign to stop underage gamblers

Underage gamblers at Pennsylvania casinos have become such a concern that state regulators are turning to a surprisingly low-tech weapon: public shame.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has launched a campaign to inform the under-21 set that if they're caught they'll not only get a criminal record and be banned from every casino in the state, but their picture and arrest summary will be added to a sort of public shaming site, along with people who have been charged with cheating, counterfeiting and leaving their children in the car while they gamble.

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State launches shame campaign to stop underage gamblers

Some of them use fake IDs, some have the good fortune of looking like their older sibling or friend and some just find a way to distract the security guards long enough to sneak past.

Underage gamblers at Pennsylvania casinos have become such a concern that state regulators are turning to a surprisingly low-tech weapon: public shame.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has launched a campaign to inform the under-21 set that if they're caught they'll not only get a criminal record and be banned from every casino in the state, but their picture and arrest summary will be added to a sort of public shaming site, along with people who have been charged with cheating, counterfeiting and leaving their children in the car while they gamble.

The campaign comes as Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem and the Gaming Control Board's office of enforcement reached terms on a consent decree Wednesday to fine the casino for failing to prevent underage gambling. Despite upgrades to its fake ID-reading technology, thousands of hours of training and retraining security guards and even changes to the casino floor entrance, Sands couldn't keep three underage gamblers from entering in three separate incidents this year.

So, if the gaming board approves the consent decree next month, Sands will pay a fine — its seventh for the same maddening problem. It has already paid $341,000 in previous fines, but it's far from alone in its frustration. Pennsylvania has doled out $2.2 million in underage fines, hitting every casino at least once.

Bethlehem Sands Casino fined $36K for underage gamblers

"The board has seen this flourish year after year," said Doug Harbach, a Gaming Control Board spokesman. "It's given [board members] enough concern to launch a campaign designed to let these young people know exactly what they'll be facing if they do it."

The $250,000 What's Really at Stake campaign is primarily a web page explaining to under-21 gamblers the consequences, and an updated set of rules to back it up. Included in those rules is a criminal record for underage gambling, fines and a ban from all Pennsylvania casinos that the offender won't be able to request be lifted until after their 22nd birthday.

Perhaps the biggest deterrent will be their mug shots and arrest details placed on the web page. The page at whatsreallyatstake.com already links to a gaming board site that include the photos of 130 youths, mixed in with photos of another 400 offenders.

While the gaming control board pushed voting on the Sands decree back until August, it did approve a consent decree that includes a $10,000 fine against Valley Forge Casino for allowing an 18-year-old woman onto the casino floor, where she was served nine drinks over 21/2 hours.

It's not for a lack of trying to stop it, Sands Casino CEO Mark Juliano said. Sands, which was last fined in January, has upgraded the hand-held machines guards use to read ID cards, adopted a policy that everyone who looks younger than 30 be carded, and installed a plan of training, discipline and termination for guards who let people under 21 slip through.

Most recently, Sands replaced the old rope-style barriers that funnel people into an entrance chute at the casino floor with hard fencing that is more difficult to jump and impossible to climb under.

"Nobody wants underage gamblers on their floor. It's not good for anybody," Juliano said. "We're aggressive in working toward 100 percent elimination, but when humans are involved there's always going to be a few that get past."

Merely trying to get past the guard is not a crime and Sands turns away thousands of people every year. Harbach noted that in some cases, it's an honest mistake. While Pennsylvania allows people 18 or older to buy lottery tickets and bet on horse races, the legal age to gamble in casinos is 21.

Those under 21 who make it to the casino floor can be charged if they're caught ordering a drink or gambling. A few sneak around the barriers and some have fake IDs so good they beat even the newest card-readers. But the most common way around the guard is one sibling or friend passing their ID to someone who resembles them.

"The board recognizes that it can be difficult to stop," said Richard McGarvey, a Gaming Control Board spokesman. "But we also expect the casino to work hard to stop it. It's a serious problem that no one takes lightly."

The good news about the new campaign is that it is not funded by taxpayers, Harbach said. The entire $250,000 price tag comes from money confiscated from the ill-gotten winnings of people arrested on the casino floor.

The bad news is that there is a question whether this campaign is finding its way to the young wannabe gamblers that are its target. Its Twitter account, opened in April, has just 19 followers.