Casino fined for security mistakes last fall

Isle Casino Cape Girardeau has been fined $10,000 by the Missouri Gaming Commission because security officers improperly issued vendor and visitor badges shortly after the casino's opening last fall.

The commission issued the penalty during its Wednesday meeting at its central office in Jefferson City, Mo.

The preliminary order for disciplinary action on Isle Casino Cape Girardeau was emailed to the Southeast Missourian by public information coordinator Leann McCarthy.

It stated "the actions or omissions of employees or agents of the company in failing to follow the proper procedures in issuing and documenting visitor and vendor badges" was a violation of the commission's law. McCarthy in the email said the commission approved the disciplinary action.

"Back when we opened, errors were made. We have since fine-tuned our procedures and retrained our employees," said Jill Alexander, senior director of corporate communications for Isle of Capri Casinos Inc.

A statement of facts included with the commission's disciplinary action said the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Gaming Division investigated on Nov. 26, shortly after the casino opened. The highway patrol cited a failure of casino security officers to collect IDs in exchange for badges, not keeping track of badges for visitors and vendors, and incomplete or unorganized paperwork.

Gaming commission general counsel Ed Grewach said a visitor to the casino is someone visiting the establishment who is not there to gamble and is not a casino employee.

Examples of a casino visitor include a person representing a government entity, a city official wanting to tour the facility, or a casino corporate employee who does not work at the location.

A vendor, Grewach said, is someone from an outside business who needs access to the gaming floor to do a job, such as restocking soda machines or servicing an automated teller machine.

Each visitor or vendor is required to provide a valid form of identification to receive a visitor badge, the document said.

The casino's security is responsible for documenting the issuance and receipt of each visitor's badge, and following up daily on any badges not returned.

The visitor/vendor log should be inspected daily by a lead security officer, and any discrepancies must be corrected by the issuing security officer.

Grewach said a commission agent inspected the logs as an ordinary course of action.

"That's when he found these inefficiencies," he said.

The inefficiencies had occurred from the casino's opening date Oct. 30 to when the logs were inspected Nov. 26, he said.

Cases before the gaming commission are processed chronologically and must go through the commission's process of the violation assessment, staff reviews and placing the alleged violation on the agenda, he said.

Grewach said factors such as the what the violation was, its seriousness and duration over which the violation occurred all are considered by commission staff before reaching a consensus on a penalty.

"We look at all those issues to come up with a recommended fine," he said. "Every circumstance is different, and the facts are different every time."

After paying the fine, Isle Casino Cape Girardeau was expected to resolve the issues, Grewach said. No further problems have arisen.

McCarthy said the fine will paid to the local jurisdiction and be distributed to the local school district.

adowning@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

777 N. Main St., Cape Girardeau, MO