Jack Entertainment fined $200,000 by Ohio gaming authorities

oit based casino operator Jack Entertainment have been fined $200,000 by the Ohio Casino Control Commission for breaches of gaming law relating to its Cleveland and Cincinnati casinos over the past twelve months.

Commission regulators levied the fine after it found that the firm had allowed underage gamblers into its Cleveland casino and when it discovered that unauthorised employees have been given access to the casino computer management program for both its Cleveland and Cincinnati venues.

Under the firm’s current procedures, anyone who looks under the age of 30 is supposed to have their ID checked and the photo compared to the person carrying it. However Ohio officials found at least thirteen separate occasions where underage gamblers were allowed to enter the casino and gamble. When confronted by these allegations the casino cited a lack of security training and in December it hired a security training instructor to address these lapses.

In an interview with the Cleveland.com website, Ohio Casino Control Commission spokesperson Jessica Franks said: "We found a number of cases where underage individuals were allowed on the property,"

"We get that you will never have 100 percent compliance in keeping out minors and the Cleveland casino has unique features, but we found that basically the security personnel were not following procedures that are supposed to be followed to screen out individuals."

The second reported breach occurred when commission officials discovered that too many employees had access to both casinos’ computer management system, which is used by the business to track finances and player activity. When authorities highlighted the issue to casino bosses, they did not take sufficient action to limit access to selected casino personnel.

Franks added: "Following the transition, an audit of ours found the wrong people had access to the program," she said. "Only certain people should be able to enter and edit data."

"They kept telling us it was fixed and our auditors found it wasn't. As part of the settlement agreement, Jack is going to hire an independent third party to do a special audit of the computer management program to make sure it is in compliance."

This latest breach marks the third time that the company has been censured following a $150,000 fine in 2013 for security and operating violations and a separate fine of $50,000 in May 2015 when the Cleveland casino was found to have inadequate surveillance coverage.

In a statement issued following the fine’s agreement, Matt Cullen, Jack Entertainment CEO said:"We acknowledge the significance of the matters identified by the Ohio Casino Control Commission and take our compliance with their important operational policies and procedures seriously,"

"We have swiftly taken steps to respond to these issues and will continue to work with the Commission to ensure ongoing compliance."