During a public meeting in July,  The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) has taken stern measures against individuals who left children unattended while they engaged in gambling activities at casinos. In a recent announcement, the board revealed that seven people have been banned from all Pennsylvania casinos due to their alleged negligence, leaving a total of nine children unattended.

Disturbing Cases of Child Neglect at Pennsylvania Casinos Lead to Bans and Criminal Charges

Shockingly, some children were left in vehicles in casino parking garages, while others were left unattended in hotel rooms. One particularly alarming case saw a male patron leave a 9-year-old child unattended in a hotel room at Mt. Airy Casino Resort for a staggering total of 7 hours and 48 minutes over a 2 ½ day period in order to gamble.

This pattern of neglectful behavior prompted the PGCB to place these individuals on the Involuntary Exclusion List, effectively banning them from all casinos in the state. The board emphasized the importance of not leaving minors unattended in such environments as it creates a potentially unsafe and dangerous situation for the children. It is also important to note that leaving minors unattended at a Pennsylvania casino can lead to criminal charges for the responsible adult, adding more gravity to the issue.

The recent incidents highlighted by the board are not isolated cases. Since the beginning of 2022 until June 2023, the board has identified a staggering 397 incidents involving adults leaving children unattended at Pennsylvania casinos, affecting a total of 633 minors. One such example was a couple that left their children in a hotel room while they were in the adjoining casino gambling. Four more people were banned in January for similar reasons. The authorities are actively working to reduce such occurrences and raise awareness of the risks involved.

Pennsylvania Casinos Face Hefty Fines for Allowing Minors on Gaming Floors

Alongside the bans, the board also imposed $67,500 in fines as part of consent agreements with several operators. Downs Racing, L.P., operator of Mohegan Pennsylvania, faced a hefty $50,000 fine for allowing individuals under the age of 21 to access the gaming floor multiple times for gambling and alcohol consumption. Rivers Casino Pittsburgh operator Holdings Acquisition, L.P., was fined $10,000 for allowing an underage individual access to the gaming floor and Rivers Casino Philadelphia operator Sugarhouse HSP Gaming, L.P., received a $7,500 fine for employing an untrained roulette dealer.

Last year the PGCB launched the “Don’t Gamble with Kids” campaign ahead of Thanksgiving, warning casino patrons not to bring their children and leave them unattended while visiting casinos. The campaign aimed to raise awareness and address the alarming number of cases where adults left their children unsupervised in casino hotel rooms or parked cars, leading to potential lifetime bans from casinos and possible criminal charges.

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The gaming regulator in the Netherlands, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), slapped Bingoal with a €400,000 ($428,000) fine for targeting young adults with advertising messages.

Targeting Young Adults

The hefty financial sanction dished out to Bingoal is the fifth slapped by the KSA on gambling operators under the same investigation for violations of the regulations prohibiting games of chance advertising to be aimed at young people.

The KSA investigation concluded that Bingoal breached the underlying regulations of the Betting and Gaming Act, namely Article 2, Paragraph 4, preamble and (a) of the Decree on Recruitment, Advertising and Addiction Prevention of Games of Chance by sending advertising messages to users aged between 18 and 24 between October 12, 2021, and March 15, 2022.

Young adults (18-24) are considered a vulnerable group due to the extreme susceptibility of the human brain at this age to develop a gambling addiction and to protect them from these risks the law prohibits operators from targeting that age group with direct advertising messages.

The Legal Certainty Principle

In its defense, Bingoal did not deny sending the advertising messages during the aforementioned period, arguing that the messages were not specifically aimed at young adults but were rather general advertising messages directed at players, claiming that just because these messages happened to reach young adults does not constitute a violation of the Article 2, Paragraph 4, (a) of the advertising and addiction prevention decree.

Bingoal focused on the part of the legal standard containing the words “aiming at,” arguing that there are several ways of interpreting this one of which is that it pertains to the content of the advertisement and not to its scope, and is therefore putting the standard in conflict with the legal certainty (lex certa) principle.

Bingoal concluded that its advertisements were not targeted at young adults and that it has not violated Article 4a, Paragraph 2 of the Betting and Gaming Act and Article 2, Paragraph 4, preamble and (a) of the advertising and addiction prevention decree.

Operator’s Second Transgression

The financial sanction imposed on Bingoal is the second for the gambling operator since the start of 2022, following the €350,000 ($375,000) it received from the Dutch gaming regulator in February when the KSA found the operator in breach of the regulation related to the national gambling self-exclusion register, Cruks.

Another recently punished operator by the Dutch gambling regulator was Merkur Casino Almere which was fined €45,000 last month for multiple occasions of letting a Cruks-registered customer enter the casino premises and gamble.

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The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), a body that regulates gambling in the Netherlands, has reported that the casino operator Betent has breached the local advertising standards. The gaming company’s prohibited actions have earned it a fine, the regulator added.

As reported, Betent’s Betcity.nl online gaming brand promoted gaming content to young adults – people aged 18 to 24. For reference, this is strictly forbidden under Dutch law as it is considered to constitute advertising to a vulnerable target group.

Following a broadcast on Kassa, a local TV program, the KSA launched an investigation and found out that the operator had been violating this rule between October 2021 and March 2022.
In its announcement, the KSA noted:

The brains of young people are still developing. As a result, they are extra susceptible to gambling addiction.

KSA statement

Betent Will Have to Pay a Fine

As it turns out, Betent had been incentivizing people aged 18-24 to play for months. While they weren’t the operator’s only target audience, many such people received promotional messages, inviting them to play with Betcity.nl.

As a result, the KSA slapped Betent, Betcity’s parent company, with a €400,000 (roughly 438,000, current conversion rates) fine.

René Jansen, chairman of the Kansspelautoriteit, commented on the matter, highlighting the importance of protecting young people from gambling harm. He reiterated that the law prohibits casino companies from targeting young adults with their marketing campaigns.

Jansen added that the Kansspelautoriteit will continue to closely monitor the sector and sanction companies that violate these guidelines. He concluded that it is important for gaming companies to respect the rules and protect vulnerable customers from harm and addiction.

The Netherlands Will Ban Untargeted Ads

The current fine comes in the wake of other fines the KSA handed following its investigation. In the past month, three gaming companies were found guilty of breaching the Dutch regulations on advertising and penalized as a result. The fine handed to Betent is the fourth fine handed as a result of this investigation.

At the beginning of this month, Franc Weerwind, the Dutch minister for legal protection, commented on the topic of gambling advertisements and said that the government will proceed with its ban on untargeted ads.

Weerwind explained that, unfortunately, gambling companies rarely can be trusted with self-regulating their marketing activity. Some of them, he noted, have been actively marketing their products even when they have been asked by the KSA to be mindful of their audiences.

The Netherlands plans to ban untargeted ads from July 1 this year.

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