Rivers Casino Fined For Sending Promotional Materials To Gambling Addicts

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 23, 2012 1:30PM

Des Plaines' Rivers Casino has essentially been a license to print money since it opened last July. The casino generated $34 million in revenue in its first full month of operation—while revenue in surrounding casinos declined—and was the main reason gambling revenues in Illinois increased for the first time since 2007.

Now comes news Rivers Casino was fined $25,000 for sending promotional materials and incentives to people on the state's "don't let me gamble" list. When we first read the story we thought, "Isn't that like fining gas stations for selling gas?"

It isn't that simple. The Illinois Gaming Board has a voluntary program for problem gamblers to self-exclude themselves from all Illinois casinos. When Rivers did its hard sell in the weeks leading up to its opening, four people on the self-exclusion list received promotional materials, seven were issued rewards incentives, and one received two cash advances.

As part of the self-exclusion program, Illinois casinos must develop a system where they can identify gamblers on the list and remove their names from all marketing and promotional materials. Rivers could have received a stiffer penalty, but avoided it in part because they reported the infractions directly to the gaming board. Rivers general manager Bill Keena said "we take our responsibility to be a good corporate citizen very seriously" and that the violations were a mistake. It isn't the first time the Gaming Board has fined a casino for this. In 2008, Hollywood Casino Aurora received an $800,000 fine for mailing promotions to 146 members of the voluntary blacklist.