PGCB Fines Live! Philadelphia $100,000 For Placing 15 Proxy Wagers

Written By Corey Sharp on June 27, 2024
Businessman holding US cash and a phone. The PGCB fined Live! Casino Philadelphia $100,000 on Wednesday for violating the proxy wagering rule at the casino's retail sportsbook.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has fined Live! Casino Philadelphia $100,000 for taking and placing sports wagers by phone, also known as proxy wagering, it announced during the monthly meeting on Wednesday.

Live! Casino Philadelphia employees accepted and placed more than $287,000 in sports bets for a customer who was not present at the casino.

Casino executives spoke before the PGCB at the meeting, explaining the actions that took place and the remedies for fixing the situation.

Live! Casino Philadelphia places large wagers for customer not in casino

The Pennsylvania Gaming Act prohibits a casino from accepting a bet from any person other than the person making the wager. Live! Casino Philadelphia broke that rule in June 2022.

An employee of the casino received a text on a personal phone to place three wagers up to $95,000. Two of which were $37,500 and the other was $20,000. The individual who texted the Live! Casino Philadelphia employee said he’d be in later that evening to pay the bets.

All three bets lost, and as a result, the individual never came in to pay the balance, even after the employee repeatedly reached out. The bettor claimed that his house was broken into and a bag of money was stolen.

An investigation into the matter found that this specific individual placed 12 previous wagers where he was not present at the casino. In total, three Live! Casino Philadelphia employees placed 15 bets worth $287,421 over an eight-day period. The bettor did, however, settle on each of the first 12 bets whether won or lost.

Stadium Casino VP of Legal, Tom Diehl, told the PGCB Live! Casino Philadelphia accepted the terms in the consent agreement.

Live! Casino Philadelphia’s response to violations

For starters, Live! Casino Philadelphia suspended and ultimately terminated the three employees that accepted and placed those wagers. The PGCB revoked each of their licenses also placed the individual who placed the wagers on the Involuntary Exclusion List.

General manager and EVP at Live! Philadelphia, Craig Clark, told the PGCB:

“This is not the culture of our organization. We have a culture of compliance and training. These are obviously violations of the gaming regulations and our training procedures. We apologize for this occurrence.”

To prevent something like this from happening again, Live! Casino Philadelphia lowered the surveillance notification threshold to $10,000. Personal phones, including smartwatches, are also banned from the sportsbook areas for employees. The casino provides workers with company-issued phones to communicate and fulfill requests.

To stress the importance of proxy betting, all Live! Philadelphia employees each acknowledged a “read and sign” memo. The casino has also implemented quarterly training programs, checklists and reviews that include the prohibition of proxy betting.

Live! Casino Philadelphia said it has not encountered proxy wagering since and has also stopped multiple instances of patrons collecting winnings for someone else.

“That gives me comfort that the policies and procedures are being administered the way we intend them to be,” Clark said.

Photo by Shutterstock
Corey Sharp Avatar
Written by
Corey Sharp

Corey Sharp is the Lead Writer at PlayPennsylvania bringing you comprehensive coverage of sports betting and gambling in Pennsylvania. Corey is a 4-for-4 Philly sports fan and previously worked as a writer and editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer and NBC Sports Philadelphia.

View all posts by Corey Sharp
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