A Pennsylvania casino has been hit with a $25k fine for letting a customer gamble despite supplying him with an Oliver Reed-worthy drinks order.
This week, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board publicly rebuked the operator of the Mount Airy Casino Resort for allowing a drunk customer to continue to play table top slots machines installed at the bar at which he was imbibing.
The Board had harsh words for Mount Airy staff, who the board claimed served the customer 27 rum-and-cokes over a nine-hour period last October 7. The Board found it particularly alarming that the last 18 of these cocktails came after the unidentified cirrhosis candidate was already displaying “signs consistent with intoxication.”
Three separate bartenders served the visibly drunk man, who eventually fell off his bar stool, then resisted casino security’s attempts to put him in an ambulance. State police were called but the man resisted arrest, landing him in County Prison for the night.
The fine is only the third of its type in the 11 years since Pennsylvania opened its casino market. The fine was levied as part of a consent agreement, meaning Mount Airy chose not to contest the Board’s decision to impose the penalty.
Board member Greg Fajt called the whole situation “pretty outrageous,” while Chairman David Barash wondered how the man “wasn’t in a coma.” Mount Airy attorney Michael Sklar admitted that the actions of the casino bartenders had been “unacceptable.” All three have been dismissed and the remaining bar staff have undergone retraining.
The Board also hit the operators of the SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia with a $15k fine for conducting improper credit promotions. There’s no word on how many drinks contributed to the SugarHouse operators failing to remember to notify the Board about the promotions in the required time period.
Meanwhile, the Board also announced that the state’s 12 licensed brick and mortar casinos started 2017 off on the wrong foot, as January’s slots revenue totaled $180.3m, representing a 2.4% decline from January 2015’s total.
Parx Casino was the unquestioned slots revenue leader despite a 2% year-on-year decline to $30.3m. Las Vegas Sands’ Sands Bethlehem was well back at $23.8m, but it was enough to keep Rivers Casino in third place with $21.5m.
