HARRISBURG — State gambling regulators fined Mohegan Sun Pocono $70,000 Wednesday for five separate incidents last year when individuals under 21 were illegally on the casino’s gaming floor. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board unanimously approved the fine during a monthly meeting. Mohegan Sun will pay $2,500 to cover the board’s enforcement costs.
Mohegan Sun has since reduced the number of entrances to its gaming floor in an effort to prevent future incidents, said President Anthony Carlucci who attended the meeting with two other casino executives.
A consent agreement signed by Carlucci gives almost minute-by-minute details based on video surveillance of the activities of the underage patrons while on the gaming floor.
These incidents, between last June 18 and September 10, involved five people, three of whom gambled while on the gaming floor of the Plains Twp. casino.
Two incidents involved a 20-year-old male who gambled at a slot machine on June 18. He was apprehended by a security supervisor after he entered the casino floor again on June 23.
The other incidents involved:
-- a 15-year-old female gambling at slot machines on Aug. 2.
-- a 20-year-old male who won $200 playing Roulette on Aug. 3.
-- a 12-year-old female and 17-year-old male on the gaming floor with their mother on Sept. 10.
Individuals under 21 are barred from entering the gaming floor or gambling under state law. An exception to floor access is made for an employee 18 or older of a casino or service provider engaged in their work.
Mohegan Sun is embarrassed by the underage incidents, Carlucci told the gaming board.
The casino’s response included firing four employees and retraining gaming floor employees on the prevention of underage gambling and drinking.
The casino reduced the number of entrances to the casino floor from 14 to four and narrowed the width of those entrances from 21 feet to 11 feet, Carlucci said. This will make it easier for employees to check patrons, he said.
The entrance changes took a couple of months to complete and cost more than $200,000, said Lynn Segars, vice president of casino operations.
Gaming Board Chairman David Barasch said he would like to see how these changes work out.
This is the ninth time that Mohegan Sun signed a consent agreement with the gaming board involving underage patrons since it opened in 2007.
Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com