Pennsylvania fines Live! Casino Philadelphia for failure to secure restricted areas
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A thief spent several hours wandering around the Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia in May 2021, entering restricted areas such as offices and the poker dealers’ lounge, going through desk drawers and purses, lifting wallets, a cell phone and voucher paper used in slot machines. She was unchallenged by staff and aided by doors left propped open by employees.
On Wednesday, a lawyer for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board read through the minute-by-minute accounting of the intruder’s whereabouts, gleaned from surveillance cameras, as she moved through the “back of the house” areas of the casino, off-limits to the public, and into the hotel itself, where she also allegedly swiped the cell phone of a housekeeper from her cleaning cart.
“It was painful to hear that even a year and a half later,” said Tom Diehl, vice president of legal for the casino, who listened to the recitation at the gaming board’s meeting in Harrisburg.
The state casino regulator on Wednesday approved a consent agreement in which the casino, which is owned by Cordish Gaming, agreed to pay a $10,000 fine, plus $2,500 in costs, for failure to secure the off-limits areas of the casino. It was the first enforcement action taken against the South Philadelphia casino since it began operations in January 2021.
Diehl said the casino did not imagine the extent to which an intruder would go and took some “serious remediation” measures after the May 2021 incident, including adding electronic access panels to doorways and instructing security officers to check doors on their rounds. The staff was also instructed to challenge anybody not wearing a proper casino badge and to stop propping open doors.
Nevertheless, three patrons in February 2022 managed to get into restricted parts of the casino after they were denied entry to the gaming floor because they could not produce proof of COVID-19 vaccination, according to the consent agreement.
Those three, who spent several minutes in an off-limits service corridor they had entered through an unoccupied event space and were not accused of stealing anything, were later discovered on the gaming floor playing slots and roulette. They were evicted from the property for 24 hours for failure to provide vaccination papers.
The woman who allegedly stole several hundred dollars from casino employees in 2021 was charged by Pennsylvania State Police. One of the missing debit cards was later charged $875. It was unclear what became of the voucher paper that was lifted.
The charges were dismissed, according to the consent agreement.
