Pennsylvania Regulator Issues Four Fines

The state gambling regulator in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), has announced that it has given out four new fines to three license holders, totaling a sum of $284,000. The license holders which were fined included Boyd Gaming and Penn National Gaming, as well as Valley Forge Convention Center Partners.

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The state gambling regulator in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), has handed out four new fines to three license holders, making up a total of $284,000. ©12019/Pixabay

Fines Given Out In Response to Number of Offenses

The state of Pennsylvania’s main gambling regulator, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), has revealed that it has issued fines totaling $284,000 to three license holders, which include Boyd Gaming and Penn National Gaming.

The Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, which operates Hollywood Casino and is a subsidiary of Penn National Gaming, was slapped with two fines totaling $120,000. The first fine, worth $70,000, was given for the offense of allowing a customer who had self-excluded from its casino to gamble, after which he became intoxicated and then caused damage to customers’ vehicles.

The second fine the PGCB handed to the Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association was for $50,000 and concerned the actions of two employees who have since been terminated, in which “willfully funneled payments” were made to service providers with the goal of causing said providers to make inaccurate disclosures to the PGCB, thereby lowering the necessary license fees.

In the meantime, Boyd Gaming Corporation was hit with a $150,000 fine for the charge of failing to disclose facts concerning the fitness of one of its key employees. And for their part, Valley Forge Convention Center Partners were fined $14,000 because they allowed a 20-year-old underage player to gamble at one of their establishments.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Also Handed Out Non-Monetary Sanctions

Aside from issuing its regular fines, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) also handed out a number of non-monetary sanctions to certain license holders for violating the state’s gambling regulations.

The regulator forced Sugarhouse HSP Gaming, a subsidiary of Rush Street Gaming, to install additional surveillance and security measures, following incidents which involved two unattended children aged two and four in the casino’s parking lot.

The PGCB also forced Snow Shoe Travel Plaza to hand over two video gaming terminal establishment licenses, as well as two key employee licenses, following its failure to comply with the necessary licensing requirements.

PGCB Fined Fantasy Sports Operator in May 2021

These four latest fines issued by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) were far from the first this year for the state regulator. In May 2021, it revealed that it issued Fantasy Sports Games with a fine of $7,500, after discovering that it offered fantasy sports games prior to receiving the necessary license in the state of Pennsylvania.

According to the regulator’s report, operator Fantasy Sports Games began accepting entries for fantasy sports contests in Pennsylvania as early as May 2018 — nearly a year before it even began applying for a sports betting license in the state in February 2019.

The state’s Gaming Expansion Act of 2017 specifies that operators offering this type of gaming to Pennsylvanians must be licensed or have applied for one from May 2018. Seeing as Fantasy Sports Games only applied for one 10 months later, the PGCB ruled that it had breached regulations and subsequently issued the fine.

This was the first time that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board issued a fine against a fantasy sports provider. It came shortly after the regulator reported a record $404.1 million in generated sports betting revenue for April 2021, marking a 776.2% year-on-year increase. Operator DraftKings held the highest revenue from fantasy sports at $1.3 million, with FanDuel coming in second at $775,667.

State of Pennsylvania Closed All Casinos in December 2020

At the height of the coronavirus pandemic in December 2020, the state of Pennsylvania announced that it would be closing all casinos statewide in order to combat the spread of the virus.

First announced on December 10th, 2020, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced in a public statement that the state would be reinstituting strict measures, lasting until 8 a.m. Monday, January 4, 2021.

With the new rules affecting any facility which offers indoor entertainment, locations such as museums, cinemas, and casinos were unable to operate for this period of time. This affected 12 Pennsylvania casinos, including Wind Creek Bethlehem, Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, Live! Casino Pittsburgh, Mohegan Sun Pocono, Harrah’s Philadelphia, Lady Luck Nemacolin, Rivers Pittsburgh, and more.

Penn National Gaming Acquired Barstool Sportsbook in Early 2020

One of the operators fined by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) in the latest round of fines was Penn National Gaming, which in early 2020 entered negotiations to acquire the increasingly popular Barstool Sportsbook platform.

Initially valued at $100 million, the deal was likely one of the largest media-gambling mergers since the overturning of PASPA in 2018, which paved the way for legalized sports betting across the United States.

Original owners of Barstool Sports, The Chernin Group, announced its plans to sell off Barstool in October 2019. With its highly loyal and passionate fanbase, it is believed that the Barstool brand will help Penn National to expand its operations into online sports betting.

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