Stadium Casino RE, LLC, operator of Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia, was recently slapped with a $100,000 fine for collecting proxy sports wagers, a blatant violation of the Pennsylvania Gaming Act. The violation involved more than $287,000 in phone wagers on sports over a period of eight days at the casino.
This kind of wagering is known as proxy betting as the bettor is not present at the casino and someone else places the bets on their behalf. According to Pennsylvania gambling rules, engaging in proxy betting is forbidden.
The Details
Deputy Enforcement Counsel Dustin Miller of the PGCB said that these violations were brought to the attention of the Bureau of Casino Compliance two years ago when one of the sportsbook’s employees flagged questionable betting activity.
Several sportsbook staff at Live! Casino made 15 bets totaling $287,421 on behalf of an absent customer. Tom Diehl, VP of Legal for Live! Casino admitted that the employees had bypassed anti-proxy wagering procedures by using personal phones.
As expected, there were consequences. Three casino workers who were engaged in the misconduct were fired and their licenses were revoked. The customer was also placed on the state’s involuntary exclusion list, which prevents him from gambling at any casino in the state.
Setting Precedence
After that, Live! Casino implemented strong safeguards to avoid such violations in the future. Some of these measures include making it easier to monitor larger bets (by reducing the surveillance notification threshold to $10,000), making it illegal to use personal cell phones in the sportsbook area and replacing them with company phones with limited use, posting prominent signs to emphasize that proxy wagering is prohibited, and increasing staff training on responsible gambling and compliance.
But they are not the only ones who are very keen on the future of compliance. On a similar note, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) is stepping up its anti-fraud efforts by instituting stricter Know Your Customer (KYC) policies and implementing MFA. At their most recent meeting, the PGCB put eleven names on the iGaming fraud Involuntary Interactive Exclusion List. PGCB Communications Director Doug Harbach said that these techniques have reduced the number of fraud instances, emphasizing how well they work to improve security for online operators and players.
Businesses can now easily confirm their customers’ identity and spot suspicious activity thanks to the Know Your Customer legislation. Each operator is required to conduct multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all devices every 14 days and to have their security evaluated by third-party companies once a year. In addition, vulnerability testing must be conducted periodically and all player data must be encrypted.