The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission met in Johnston.
The Grand Falls Casino agreed to a $20,000 fine today for an illegal gambling violation at the facility near Larchwood in northwest Iowa.
Iowa Racing and Gaming administrator, Brian Ohorilko, explained the situation to the Racing and Gaming Commission. “We had a minor on December 14th enter the gaming floor unchallenged, was on the gaming floor for 30 minutes and had gambled,” Ohorilko says.
Casino general manager, Sharon Hasselhoff, apologized to the commission. “We take it very seriously, we did not I.D. this guest as we should have,” Hasselhoff says. “Simply, there’s no excuse. We did not do our job.”
Hasselhoff says they have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again. “Since this incident, we have had significant retraining with our employees, reminding them or the importance of their job,” Hasselhoff says. She says 127 employees in security, table games and food and beverage areas went through I.D. checking and training to check for intoxication since the incident.
She says they stressed during the training the importance of always following through and the consequences for the facility if they let someone in without checking their I.D.
“Again, we’re very sorry that this happened and are using it as a retraining lesson for our employees,” Hasselhoff says.
Gaming administrator Ohorilko says the $20,000 penalty is standard for underage gambling violations. He says Grand Falls has a very good record and has not had any other recent violations.
The Racing and Gaming Commission held its monthly meeting in Johnston.