Since Iowa’s casino self-ban law changed July 1, allowing people to remove their lifetime ban on entering a casino, 550 individuals have applied, Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Administrator Brian Ohorilko said.
He noted the law change offer people the option of a 5-year self-ban of a lifetime ban. Those who previously signed the lifetime ban now may request to be taken off that list.
Gambling treatment organizations supported the change, noting that allowing the 5-year ban could lead to more people signing up for a gambling ban, since it was a shorter period of time.
Ohorilko said, “There’s approximately 4,000 people who are eligible to be removed. Essentially those are all people who had been on for five years or more. Some of our records showed that people applied maybe more than once or weren’t eligible. But I would say of those 550, we’ve had at least 500 folks who requested to be removed and were eligible to be removed, pursuant to that new law.”
Ohorilko explained, “What we do tell people is that information then gets sent out to each of the casinos and there are 20 different licensees who use that list. And so, sometimes it takes anywhere from seven to 30 days for those properties to get their own databases in sync with the removal.”
Ohorilko said the number of requests for removal from the lifetime self-ban has “really calmed down within the past month or so.”
