Presque Isle Casino Fined More Than $80 Thousand, Pennsylvania Excludes More Individuals
Posted on: February 27, 2025, 01:14h.
Last updated on: February 28, 2025, 06:27h.
- Presque Isle has been fined $81,575
- Pennsylvania gaming regulators also banned nine more people from casinos
- The Involuntary Exclusion List includes many unattended children cases
Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie has been fined more than $81K by state gaming officials for two considerable regulatory failures.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) announced that Presque Isle Casino was fined $50K for having fewer active slot machines on its gaming floor than its minimum requirement. The racino owned and operated by Kentucky-based Churchill Downs Inc. was additionally fined $31,575 for failing to timely file a “principal license” application with the PGCB.
Specifics of the two incidents and the consent agreements reached to remedy the matters weren’t made immediately available. The PGCB oversees all forms of legal gambling in the commonwealth aside from the state-run Pennsylvania Lottery.
Churchill acquired the Lake Erie casino in January 2019 from Eldorado Resorts for $179 million in part of its merger with Caesars Entertainment.
The Presque Isle Casino website says the facility has 1,500 slot machines, 30 live dealer table games, and a TwinSpires Sportsbook. The racino offers two full-service restaurants, plus a grab and go café and two bars, as well as an entertainment venue and live horse racing with parimutuel wagering.
Previous Fines
Presque Isle was fined $10K in 2016 for not properly securing a storage area housing table game equipment. In 2021, the casino was fined $45K for violating alcohol provisions during COVID-19, including allowing patrons to drink alcohol while on the casino floor.
In February 2022, the PGCB fined Presque Isle $17,500 for failing to stop a 19-year-old from gambling for nearly two hours. The casino terminated the security worker who let the minor trespass.
Unattended Children Cases
Despite robust efforts from the PGCB to limit the number of incidences of children being left unattended in vehicles outside casinos while their supposed caretakers gamble inside, the board announced that two additional individuals had been excluded from all forms of gambling it regulates for such grievances. The Involuntary Exclusion List, which includes exclusions for all infractions like cheating, disorderly conduct, and fraud, now numbers 1,344 persons.
Actions such as these to deny statewide gambling privileges serve as a reminder that adults are prohibited from leaving minors unattended in the parking lot or garage, a hotel, or other venues at a casino since it creates a potentially unsafe and dangerous environment for the children. To complement the efforts by casinos to mitigate this issue, the Board created an awareness campaign, ‘Don’t Gamble with Kids,'” the PGCB said in a release.
The PGCB detailed that a male patron left a five-year-old in his vehicle in the valet parking lot outside Rivers Casino Philadelphia while he “attempted to conduct financial business in the casino.”
In a separate incident, a male patron left a 10-year-old child in an unattended vehicle with the windows rolled up and the engine not running during a 90-degree day this past summer at Wind Creek Bethlehem. The man was found gambling on a slot machine. The child was reportedly in the vehicle for at least 45 minutes.
The PGCB also took action against a female who left three minors aged 10, 14, and 15 in the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course parking garage in 2022. She was located playing slot machines. Surveillance showed her children were unattended inside the vehicle for over one hour and 40 minutes.
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