The operators of the Mystique Casino in Dubuque agreed to pay a $3,000 fine for allowing a man banned from gambling to play blackjack and sign up for a player club card. Casino chief financial officer Dustin Manternach told state regulators that employees failed to double-check the person’s identity. “He gave us an incorrect name, we checked the name against the database and it came back without checking the I-D,” Manternach says.
The man had signed a self-ban from gambling at Prairie Meadows Casino in Altoona in 2009. He played at the Dubuque casino and signed up for the club card in January of this year. Manternach says they moved to prevent any more problems. He says they take it very seriously and went through the policies and procedures to strengthen them and worked with employees to ensure the proper procedures are followed to verify a gambler is not on the banned list.
The Racing and Gaming Commission says the Mystic has not had any other problems of this type in the last year, and commission members approved the $3,000 fine at their meeting last week in Council Bluffs. Casinos can be fined up to $20,000 for this type of violation.