Three Iowa casinos—Lakeside Casino in Osceola, Riverside Casino & Golf Resort in Cedar Rapids and Prairie Meadows Casino in Altoona—agreed to pay penalties assessed by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission for violations associated with self-ban lists.
Lakeside Casino is owned by Affinity Gaming, which also owns St. Jo Frontier Casino in St. Joseph, Missouri. According to IRGC Administrator Brian Ohorilko,
“In June of this year, the property in Missouri used their players club list and sent promotional mailings to people on the Iowa statewide list.” Ohorilko said an Iowan on the self-ban list then attempted to use some of the promotional offers. A Lakeside employee discovered the person was on the self-ban list and investigated and found 17 people on the list had received the mailings that originated in Missouri. Lakeside had not had any other violations in the last 365 days, and agreed to a $3,000 dollar civil penalty.
Ohorilko said Riverside Casino also discovered a violation where a self-banned individual went unnoticed when applying for a players club card. The employee who issued the card mis-typed the individual’s last name, so that person was sent promotional mailings. Another employee noticed the misspelled name was similar to the banned person’s when that person tried to use the card. “Riverside promptly reported the matter to the commission and agreed to an administrative penalty of $10,000,” Ohorilko said. He noted the penalty was higher since it was the third self-ban violation at Riverside within 365 days, which is unusual.
“It’s not typical and I think Riverside, they had indicated to the commission that they have had some challenges in this area. With that said, they have taken extraordinary steps to try and fix the issue,” Ohorilko stated. In fact, he noted, some of the steps Riverside took after the first two violations helped lead to the discovery of the third violation.
Ohorilko said Prairie Meadows discovered a violation when marketing emails were sent to players who had banned themselves. He said the casino has since taken steps to make sure the problem is not repeated. The casino agreed to a $3,000 fine since it had no other violations in the last 365 days.
