Iowa Casino Fined $20,000 After Letting a Youth Gamble
Underage gambling
An Iowa casino loses twenty grand as a youth wins a slots jackpot
An under-age gambler who allegedly won $3,601 on a slot machine in an Iowa casino couldn’t pick up his winnings after he failed age verification checks, it has been reported in the latest casino gambling news. The youth, under the legal US gambling age of twenty one years, reportedly made his way past security at the entrance in the Argosy Casino in Sioux City and began to roam the casino floor.
With a range of slot machines to choose from, the young man began to play and picked up a jackpot of $3,601 in a stroke of luck lasting roughly two hours. The greedy youth’s luck though, soon ran out as the Argosy requires an age verification check on winnings over $1,200.
Failing the identity check, security was eventually notified, as were the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The young man then subsequently led off the premises of the Argosy casino.
An extract from the document regarding the case, read that, “over the next two hours, the minor walked through the gaming floor and played numerous slot machines. Surveillance coverage showed he had direct contact with many facility employees, however was not asked for identification.”
The Argosy Sioux City casino, which is also famous for its poker and blackjack cards games was consequently fined $20,000 for failing to apprehend the youth at the entrance, and their continued failure to stop him from playing the machines.
This isn’t the first time casinos in the United States have been hit with similar fines under almost identical circumstances. In 2007, The Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, also in Iowa was hit with a $20,000 fine for allowing a youth to gamble. The casino tried to sue the teenager afterwards for the fine.
In the same year in Macau, The Sands Casino resort allowed the mother of a sixteen year old girl to keep her $100,000 jackpot after a loophole meant that whilst it was forbidden to allow a youth into a casino, it was not forbidden for them gamble. That loophole has now been successfully closed.
