SugarHouse Casino stopped the man after 17 drinks, but he became unruly and police eventually arrested the man.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board fined SugarHouse Casino $17,500 for overserving a gambler in September of last year. SugarHouse Casino staff served the gambler 17 free drinks over an 8-hour period.
Pennsylvania official says the player was visibly drunk during his gaming session. He played Pai Gow Poker, a table game based on the Chinese domino game Pai Gow.
The casino signed a consent agreemenet with the Gaming Control Board which admitted that staff continued to serve free drinks to the gambler after he was drunk. Only when the gambler no longer could hold his head up did the staff react.
At that point, a supervisor stopped the Pai Gow Poker player from getting more drinks. The supervisor also summoned security at that point.
Overserved Gambler Arrested
As security escorted the gambler from the casino, an altercation occurred. SugarHouse Casino then called law enforcement, who arrested the customer for public drunkenness.
SugarHouse signed a deal with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board stating it would discipline the beverage servers in the case. Also, it assured regulators that it would retrain their beverage servers to assure similar incidents don’t happen again.
About SugarHouse Casino
SugarHouse Casino is a Philadelphia land-based casino which opened for business in 2010. The Gaming Control Board awarded a license to Rush Street Gaming in 2006. The project took four years before grand opening because of lawsuits against the city leasing the land to the casino developers.
In fact, a Pennsylvania judge declared in 2008 that the city of Philadelphia could not lease land to Rush Street Gaming for the casino. By 2009, the courts reversed their decision and a groundbreaking happened.
SugarHouse Casino remains a big success for Rush Street over the past 9 years. The brand gained a sub-license from Golden Nugget Atlantic City to operate an online casino in the New Jersey gaming market.
SugarHouse Online Casino
SugarHouse Online Casino launched in September 2016 and became the top online casino by the end of the year. The online casino’s great success stemmed from a key strategic decision. SugarHouse licensed online slots games from the top slot machine designers in the world: International Game Technology (IGT), WMS Gaming, Bally Technologies, and Konami.
The popularity of those online slots drew many New Jersey customers to the site. Though Borgata Online had a three-year head start, it took only three months for PlaySugarHouse to vault to number one position.
Still, the land-based operations are its big revenue stream. Repeated violations of Pennsylvania gaming law would mean bigger fines and, in extreme cases, the loss of a casino license. Serving alcohol to a clearly inebriated gambler brings with it all kinds of legal considerations, so SugarHouse Casino must assure it won’t happen again in the future.
About Pai Gow Poker
Pai Gow Poker is one of the most interesting table games. “Pai Gow” means “two-handed” in Chinese, and it’s a good indication of the game itself. Players receive seven cards, but must use those cards to create two hands.
One is a 5-card hand like you’d build in most games of Hold’em, Omaha, draw poker, or stud poker. The other is a two-card hand. The trick is the player bets an equal amount on both hands, so he or she must balance strategy to create the best chance of winning both hands.
The player’s cards match up against the dealer’s cards. The dealer plays their cards the “house way”, so casino staff members do not use flexible strategy. Players do, so Pai Gow Poker has basic strategy and skill elements. Being inebriated definitely would affect the game’s house edge and give a casino an even bigger advantage.
