The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PCGB) has fined the operator of Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia $100,000 for taking nearly $300,000 worth of proxy wagers by phone.
At a public meeting of the board on Wednesday, the board approved a proposal by the Office of Enforcement Counsel (OEC) to sanction the property for accepting multiple wagers by a gambler who was not physically present in the casino.
Several staff members of the Live! Casino Sportsbook accepted and placed 15 wagers totaling $287,421 from a patron over an eight-day period despite such bets being prohibited under casino policy, the board regulations and the Pennsylvania Gaming Act.
At the board meeting on June 26, Deputy Enforcement Counsel Dustin Miller said that two years ago, the Bureau of Casino Compliance was informed by a casino sportsbook employee that the patron had texted him on his personal phone asking for three separate wages to be placed, totaling $95,000.
The patron said he would visit the casino that evening to pay for the wagers. When all three bets lost, he didn’t turn up and he did not return multiple attempts to contact him. An investigation unearthed 12 other similar instances of sportsbook employees placing wagers for the gambler when he was not at the casino.
VP of Legal for Live! Philadelphia Tom Diehl said the perpetrators used cell phones and text messages “to circumvent our anti-proxy wagering internal procedures.”
The patron eventually came to the casino on June 18. When he was accosted by security, he claimed that he had been planning on coming in on June 17 to pay but found his house had been broken into and a bag of money had been stolen, which prevented him from doing so.
The three employees who accepted and placed the wagers over the eight-day period were terminated and had their gaming employment licenses revoked, while the patron has been excluded from gambling in Pennsylvania. There was no indication that the employees were set to gain financially from the potential proceeds of the bets, said casino officials. However, Craig Clark, the casino’s EVP and general manager, noted there was one incident in which a tip was given.
Live! Casino took retroactive measures
Diehl stressed that when the proxy betting activity was discovered, as well as suspending and terminating the employees, the casino conducted an investigation and self-reported to the PGCB the details of the violations
He also highlighted the measures Stadium Casino and the Live! Casino venue took after the incidents.
Stadium lowered the surveillance notification threshold for wagers at the casino sportsbook to $10,000 to allow for “increased scrutiny and transparency.” The use of personal cellphones within the sportsbook area was banned and company phones were issued to employees and activity on the phones was restricted.
Rich Cooper, counsel and VP of regulatory for FanDuel, Live! Casino’s sportsbook partner, stressed that clear signage in the retail sportsbook clarified that proxy wagering is prohibited and all staff were trained. Since the incidents, he said FanDuel has “doubled down” by increasing the frequency and depth of training around proxy training and suspicious activity.
When asked if Stadium Casino has identified any similar attempts at proxy wagering since these incidents, Clark said they had discovered several attempts wherein someone has placed bets and a different person has come to the casino to collect the money.
Live! Casino embroiled in alleged cheating scheme
Live! Casino has also been involved in a separate scandal in the last few months. Pennsylvania State Police arrested five people in April and May regarding a cheating scheme that allegedly, involved a table games dealer at the property.
According to a police press release, the dealer, Khai Ho, colluded with three patrons in two different games in an attempt to cheat the casino out of more than $170,000.
The police release asserted that while dealing Baccarat, Ho would switch hands to make it appear as if the players had won, resulting in them being paid out for winnings they hadn’t earned. While Ho was dealing Pai Gow Tiles, he would falsely shuffle the tiles to create pre-determined hands. Ho was paid in cash outside the casino by these players for his part in the fraud.
