Caesars Entertainment announced it is rolling out additional programs for its responsible gaming policies and increasing its overall presence in the sector.
One of the areas Caesars wanted to beef up was the self-exclusion program. At the moment, customers are excluded from the casino they regularly patronize.
Under the new program, self-exclusion will be enforced at all of their retail properties, as well as mobile sports betting and online casinos.
“It’s been something we’ve been working on for some time, and we wanted to launch our universal self-exclusion program as soon as it was ready,” Caesars spokeswoman Kate Whiteley said in an emailed statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s serendipitous that it happened to align with the end of Problem Gambling Awareness Month, but we are glad to have the opportunity to talk about it as the industry focuses on the crucial topic of Responsible Gaming.”
Self-exclusion programs work by allowing customers who believe they have a problem to request that a casino or sports book prohibit them from entering the facility. The time period a person is banned can run from one week to a year to five years. In extreme cases a patron can request a lifetime ban.
Now when a customer requests to be excluded from a casino or sportsbook, Caesars will make it for every facility they operate, not just the one they regularly patronize.
The ban will also apply to mobile and internet casinos and sportsbooks run by Caesars. The company hopes to have the program in place by the end of March.
It will be challenging to enforce, however. Patrolling a casino floor can be an arduous task. Most of those on a self-exclusion list are caught when they hit a jackpot and have to show identification to claim it. Facial recognition is another tool that casinos utilize.
“As the largest gaming company in North America, we have a special responsibility to ensure that everything we do is built on a solid foundation of responsible gaming,” said Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg. “We take that responsibility very seriously, and these new policies reflect that commitment.”
Another part of the responsible gaming program is revamping the age customers can gamble to 21 and over at all properties. Some Caesars locations are on Native American tribal land and the age can be as young as 18-years-old. That will change as a universal 21-and-over policy will be in effect by the end of the month.
