Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia, a glimmering spectacle in the city’s Stadium District, has been hit with a no-nonsense $100,000 fine for failing to uphold Pennsylvania’s stringent sports wagering norms. A stunning aerial view of the casino belies the turmoil brewing beneath, as the house’s FanDuel Sportsbook found itself in hot water over accepting illegitimate proxy bets. The culprits? None other than a bettor who wasn’t physically present on the casino’s properties and several errant employees.
Headquartered in ‘The Keystone State’, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) affirmed a consent agreement proposed by its Office of Enforcement Counsel (OEC) to remediate the concerns surrounding Stadium Casino. Live! Casino conceded to the violations; the bookmaker’s employees were shown to have smilingly ignored the rules, accepting bets telephonically from the absent bettor.
A state-led investigation shone a spotlight on multiple instances of this indiscretion. It emerged that a shocking 15 wagers had been incorrectly attracted over the course of eight days, the amount totaling an eye-popping $287,421 from a patron who was nowhere near the casino’s premises. Proxy wagers, those placed by one person on behalf of another, are strictly verboten in Pennsylvania’s betting scene.
The corrective action was swift and incisive. Alongside the substantial financial penalty, the PGCB unceremoniously stripped three sportsbook employees of their gaming licenses, resulting in their swift termination from the company.
In a parallel development, the PGCB refused to indulge two gamblers who found themselves on Pennsylvania’s Involuntary Exclusion List, following their reckless abandonment of minors in vehicles while they sought fortune inside the casino. The stern reminder from the board reinforced that adults are expressly forbidden from leaving minors unattended at casino-associated locales due to the potential health and safety hazards.
Further growth was seen in Pennsylvania’s iGaming Involuntary Exclusion List, on which 11 more people found themselves after the board found them guilty of iGaming fraud. The sins of these ten were manifold – using another’s identity for fraudulent iGaming accounts, and even money laundering through these accounts.
Witnessing the world of gaming and its regulation, one sees that Pennsylvania is increasingly becoming a benchmark in this industry. It is one of the seven states to have legal online slots and interactive table games, complete with 17 traditional casinos, sports betting avenues- both offline and online, fantasy sports platforms, and video gaming terminals at diesel truck stops.
Its reputation reached as far as East Asia, with Japanese representatives arriving last September to learn from the PGCB’s regularity prowess. Their target was to gain a deeper understanding of the state’s approach to background checks for key casino personnel and the Board’s investigation practices into potential noncompliance.
