New Jersey: Borgata fined by casino regulators

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement recently announced four sets of fines against the Borgata casino in Atlantic City for allowing “individuals who failed to produce adequate identification, abandoned certain assets, or were otherwise prohibited from engaging in gaming activity.” The fines stemmed from findings against the casino by the DGE on June 24, two more on June 25, and another on Aug. 5. Borgata did not argue against the claims made against it while “constructively admitting to the allegations in the complaint,” according to the DGE.

Fines totaling $76,557 for 452 violations will be forfeited by the casino to DGE, according to the series of rulings on Jan. 4. In 21 other cases, the fines assigned to Borgata were rescinded because those patrons “subsequent to the confiscation of their funds, presented adequate identification.” All but $5,103.17 of the forfeitures stem from the three sets of violations in late June. Other violations also found In late December, Borgata agreed to pay a fine of $13,072.51 resulting from 136 other individuals in a previous complaint who also “failed to produce adequate identification, abandoned certain assets, or were otherwise prohibited from engaging in gaming activity.”

The previous month, Borgata agreed to pay fines of $9,148.95 for similar incidents involving 137 other such patrons. All told, Borgata has been hit with nearly six figures worth of fines for the violations. Harrah’s was cited for the same type of offense in November, accepting a fine of $11,843.81 for an incident involving a single patron. Caesars Digital Sportsbook, meanwhile, was hit on Jan. 6 with a “$1,000 civil penalty for reopening a patron’s account after a request was made to permanently close the account due to a gambling problem.” Additionally, the sportsbook agreed to a “disgorgement of $1,605, this being the amount won by Caesars Digital Sportsbook from the patron after his request.”

Last month, the DGE fined the William Hill sportsbook at Ocean Casino Resort $10,000 for having employed a ticket writer from May until September 2021 even though his casino employee registration had been revoked. In November, FanDuel was fined $2,000 for “offering an event approved as a casino game without a casino license or Division authorization.