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ATLANTIC CITY - He liked playing blackjack, poker, roulette and Spanish 21. He would also try his luck on the slot machines. Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort considered him a "rated player" and even comped him with a hotel room.

But this would-be high roller actually was a teenager whose gambling spree between March 2007 and April 2008 cost Hilton a $115,000 fine Wednesday in one of the most egregious cases of underage gambling in Atlantic City's 31-year history of casinos.

"We take these matters very, very seriously," Linda M. Kassekert, chair of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, said after the board voted 3-0 to impose the fine.

With some irony, Kassekert noted that Hilton's fine coincides with Responsible Gaming Education Week, an annual campaign by the nation's gaming industry to tout measures it has taken to prevent underage and compulsive gambling.

The Hilton fine was the second largest ever against an individual casino for underage gambling. Bally's Atlantic City was fined $157,500 in November for allowing a 20-year-old woman to play the slot machines and gaming tables during an 18-day gambling binge in 2006. In Atlantic City's most infamous case of underage gambling, five casinos collectively paid $180,000 in fines and donations in 1989 after they treated a teenage girl as a high roller.

Hilton's underage gambler was a 19-year-old man from Brooklyn, N.Y., identified publicly only by the initials "M.R." Authorities finally caught up with him at Hilton in April 2008, when a gaming investigator spotted his name on a list of hotel guests and knew him to be an underage patron who previously had gambled at another casino.

Kassekert said the penalty against Hilton was so severe because the casino ignored warnings from the state Division of Gaming Enforcement that the teenager was gambling there. Investigators tipped off Hilton on April 7, 2008, but the casino allowed him to gamble the following day.

Karen M. Wosnack, Hilton vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, represented the casino at the commission meeting Wednesday but declined to comment afterward. Hilton did not challenge the fine.

The legal gambling age in Atlantic City is 21. Hilton and other casinos in town have a litany of security and surveillance programs in place to nab underage gamblers, but the Hilton case shows that the system is hardly foolproof.

"I think we have a big concern about this because kids can make themselves look older. That's problematic," Kassekert said.

Last year, 523 underage gamblers were caught inside Atlantic City's 11 casinos, state statistics show. Thousands more were prevented from entering the casinos. The Casino Control Commission approved new regulations last month giving casino security guards the power to detain suspected underage gamblers or drinkers without first having to wait for police to show up.

Kassekert said she believes the casinos generally do a good job in preventing underage gamblers from sneaking through the doors.

"When they don't, this is the type of consequence," she said, alluding to the stiff fine against Hilton.

Hilton's underage gambler played the gaming tables and slot machines at least four separate times between March 11, 2007 and April 8, 2008, according to commission documents. He lied about his birth date when he was enrolled in Hilton's computer database that tracks "rated players."

Gamblers are routinely rated on their level of play, which serves as the basis for rewarding them with complimentary services, such as free food and hotel rooms. Hilton gave the teenager a free hotel room.

After the teenager was caught, Hilton responded by tightening its security and surveillance procedures, including additional training for employees to spot underage gamblers.

R. Lane Stebbins, a deputy state attorney general representing the Division of Gaming Enforcement, praised the Hilton for making such a "comprehensive effort" to crack down on underage gambling in the future.

"Let's hope it works," he said.

E-mail Donald Wittkowski:

DWittkowski@pressofac.com

Security measures

The Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, fined $115,000 Wednesday for allowing an underage gambler to play its table games and slot machines, has tightened its policies. Following are key points:

The entire casino security department has been retrained and reminded to "stay vigilant" for underage gamblers.

- All employees working in table games received a memo telling them that a player loyalty card is not an acceptable form of identification. Lying about his birth date, the underage gambler was enrolled in the Hilton's player loyalty program, making him eligible for casino comps, such as free hotel rooms.

- Only a daily basis, employees in the slots department are reminded to watch out for underage gamblers. They are also counseled individually on a quarterly basis using a Task Guide that focuses on underage patrons.

- Upon hiring, all front desk employees receive a training manual that states no guests under the age of 21 may register at the hotel. In addition, player loyalty cards are no longer issued by front desk employees.

Source: New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement

6 comments:

• TurboDan (16) posts 10:02 pm

  Oh, geez. THIS is what the state is worried about in 2009? An adult (we're talking 19 and 20 year olds) playing a couple card games and slot machines? Is this REALLY such a big deal? We have to ditch the nanny state and make 18 the legal age for everything. Stop this nonsense.

• BernieSchwartz (645) posts 10:24 am

  I didn't think anyone gambled at the Hilton any more.

• vwsteve (99) posts 10:15 am

  Niky....the teen did do something wrong. He knowingly gambled illegally. He had been flagged before from another property and had his name on a watchdog list for underage gamblers. He bounced to other properties so that he can continue to gamble illegally. This isn't some kid down the shore with his parents who fed some money into a slot machine close to the casino floor entrance when his mommy wasn't looking. Fine the kid as well as the casino....he'll think twice before he tries to do it again.

• American_Gaming_Guru (242) posts 9:48 am

  NY does not allow free drinks on the casino floors, thats why the gambling age is 18.

• Nikynewark (118) posts 9:29 am

  It's all relative. A hundred thousand dollar fine to a casino is chump change. To the average Joe it's a disaster. Bump the fine to start at $500,000 and get their attention. The headline on this story gives the impression that the teen did something wrong. If the casino was warned about the players age, as indicated in the story, but chose to let him play anyway then they did so at their own peril. Peril in this case being chump change.

• MikeElbedewy (22) posts 9:23 am

  Lower the gambling age to 18 like New York, Rhode Island, Canada and a bunch of other places. A 19 year old MAN is not a child.

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