The Courier-Journal
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Caesars Indiana casino was fined $50,000 yesterday for violating state gambling laws -- including 10 instances in which marketing materials were mailed to people who had placed themselves on a list that excludes them from the state's riverboats.
The Harrison County casino turned itself in for the self-exclusion violations, which resulted in a $30,000 fine.
All riverboats must participate in the statewide exclusion program, which was established to help people who are trying to stop gambling.
The law includes a ban on sending marketing enticements, which generally encourage patrons to try a new game or register for a drawing, to anyone on the list.
The casinos also must adopt controls to ensure that excluded patrons aren't allowed to cash checks or receive payment for a jackpot. Casinos must remove an excluded person's name from marketing lists within 45 days of being notified that the individual has registered for the program.
One other riverboat, Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, was fined $10,000 yesterday for several violations involving exclusion procedures.
The Indiana Gaming Commission issued the fines yesterday during a meeting in Indianapolis.
Caesars executives notified the commission about the violations in February after employees of the casino discovered the errors.
The commission was told yesterday that, after the 45-day grace period elapsed, three patrons received one mailing, another received two mailings and a fifth received five mailings.
Caesars also was fined $10,000 for failing to follow procedures after a computer-system malfunction. Patrons who were playing at some slot machines in October during a computer outage received tickets specifying their winnings and redeemed them at cashier stations, commission documents said.
A commission auditor was on hand when the computer system went down and noticed that cashiers didn't take any verification steps before paying the tickets, which involved amounts of less than $500.
The regulators' settlement agreement didn't say how much money was paid out or whether any tickets were found to be invalid.
Another violation, for which Caesars will pay $7,500, involved a regulation requiring pit bosses to check each roulette wheel daily with a level to ensure that it is balanced and will rotate freely.
An investigation of the casino's inspection logs showed that from June to Jan. 18 the boat's 10 roulette tables had received the inspections once or twice a month. The gaming commission staff wrote that at "all other times a roulette table was opened (for the day's gambling with) only visual inspections."
The final violation, which drew a penalty of $2,500, involved Caesars' failure to follow inspection procedures for changing decks of playing cards.
The boat had three violations during February that, the commission staff noted, occurred after regulators had sent memos reminding the 10 casinos to ensure that employees were familiar with the procedures.
Caesars general manager Ed Garruto said after the meeting that the sanctions are a reminder that the casino must "redouble our efforts" to be sure everyone follows the regulations.
"They slapped us pretty hard," he said.
He added, however, that "we have a pretty good compliance record with the Indiana Gaming Commission. Our cumulative fines are about the lowest of any Indiana boat."
In fact, Caesars didn't pay the biggest fines yesterday. The largest -- $265,000 -- were levied against Majestic Star Casino in Gary. Regulators cited the boat for eight violations, the most serious of which involved $67,881 in unpaid taxes, according to commission documents.
Also at yesterday's meeting, Ernest Yelton, the commission's executive director, made a brief report on the application process for the state's 11th casino, which will be in Orange County.
The commission received just one application for the project before its Wednesday deadline. The application came from a team formed by executives of Cook Group Inc., a medical-device maker in Bloomington, and Lauth Group Inc., an Indianapolis real-estate development firm.
Yelton said a group of investors that includes Indiana Pacers President Larry Bird had sent a request yesterday morning for the commission to consider modifying the process to allow it to make an application.
The investors claimed they couldn't assemble a suitable application while attempting to negotiate with parties in Orange County that had a direct interest in the Cook-Lauth venture.
The commission declined to vote on the matter. One member -- Ann Marie Bochnowski -- said she didn't see any reason to delay the application process because enough time had been provided.
