The Lakeside Casino in Osceola and the Isle Casino in Waterloo were both fined $3,000 Thursday by state regulators for violations involving people who had signed up to ban themselves from gambling.
Iowa Racing and Gaming administrator, Brian Ohorilko, says the Lakeside violation involved a promotional material. “The facility had purchased a couple of mailing lists, and those lists were improperly screened against the statewide self-exclusion list. And so, some patrons who had signed up on the statewide list to be self-excluded, received some promotional mailing,” Ohorilko says.
He says the casino has taken action to prevent this from happening again. “They are going to start — if they do purchase a list — to scrub those lists in house to basically ensure that they are not mailing promotional coupons to folks who are self excluded,” Ohorilko says.
He says the Isle Casino in Waterloo paid out a jackpot to a person who was on the self-exclusion list. “Prior to paying off a jackpot, the facility is supposed to request identification, check that identification with the statewide self-exclusion list,” Ohorilko explains. “That was not properly done in this instance.” He says the jackpot in this case was around $1,200.
He says the fine is based on the history of violations by each particular casino. “Each facility has not had a similar violation within the past 365 days, and so consistent with past practice, I think that went into some of the logic behind the $3,000 fine. That is consistent with what past commissions have done,” Ohorilko says.
He says the commission has not seen a lot of these type of problems. “We have not had a situation since that self-exclusion list has been required as part of the statute where we’ve had a facility have more than two incidents within a one-year period,” Ohorilko says. A second violation of the self-exclusion policy in the same year would lead to a fine of $5,000.