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Friday, April 22, 2005

Ind. Gov't. - Indiana Gaming Commission fines Caesars $50,000

A story in the Louisville Courier Journal today by Grace Schneider reports:

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Caesars Indiana casino was fined $50,000 yesterday for violating state gambling laws -- including 10 instances in which marketing materials were mailed to people who had placed themselves on a list that excludes them from the state's riverboats.

The Harrison County casino turned itself in for the self-exclusion violations, which resulted in a $30,000 fine.

All riverboats must participate in the statewide exclusion program, which was established to help people who are trying to stop gambling.

The law includes a ban on sending marketing enticements, which generally encourage patrons to try a new game or register for a drawing, to anyone on the list.

The casinos also must adopt controls to ensure that excluded patrons aren't allowed to cash checks or receive payment for a jackpot. Casinos must remove an excluded person's name from marketing lists within 45 days of being notified that the individual has registered for the program.

One other riverboat, Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, was fined $10,000 yesterday for several violations involving exclusion procedures.

The Indiana Gaming Commission issued the fines yesterday during a meeting in Indianapolis.

Meanwhile, in Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reports:
The Illinois Gaming Board said Thursday it had gotten rid of a politically connected lobbyist forced onto its payroll by the Blagojevich administration over the objections of board members who said they didn't need or want her.

But Linda Freveletti, sister-in-law of former state Democratic Party Chairman Gary LaPaille, won't have to make do without a state paycheck. The administration quickly installed her in another lobbying job, working for the Gaming Board's parent agency, the Department of Revenue.

Freveletti found herself in the middle of a political storm in February after gambling regulators publicly complained that she was foisted on them by Blagojevich's Revenue Department, which controls the board's purse strings.

The Gary Post-Tribune has this report today:
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Gaming Commission will ask other state agencies to investigate the two East Chicago casino foundations and a private company receiving gaming dollars, it decided as it approved a license transfer that cleared the way for the riverboat’s sale to Resorts.

The decision came after a nearly two-hour public hearing, during which the City of East Chicago, under the new administration of Mayor George Pabey, asked the commission to accept a new local agreement with the city’s casino.

The agreement, passed by the City Council, would return to the city nearly $9 million in annual payments made by the casino to two private foundations and the private company, Second Century, run by partners with close ties to former East Chicago mayor Robert Pastrick.

The private company, run by former Democratic Party chairman Michael Pannos and East Chicago political powerbroker Tom Cappas, had not turned over data to the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment, which evaluates whether casinos have complied with their local agreements, for the Indiana Gaming Commission.

“I don’t understand why we cannot see the records. Why? Why?” asked Commissioner Ann Bochnowski.

But Gaming Commission member Donald Vowels asked whether the commission had the ability to analyze the local agreements, taking the more narrow view that the gaming commission only has the authority to regulate the riverboat, not the local agreement.

Indiana Gaming Commission Executive Director Earnest Yelton asked the commissioners for authority to ask the Indiana Department of Revenue and the state Board of Accounts to investigate how the roughly $80 million from the city’s local agreement has been spent over the last eight years, since the gaming commission approved the original local deal. The commission approved the request unanimously.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 22, 2005 08:19 AM
Posted to Indiana Government