Iowa Gaming Regulator Imposes Fines On Two Casinos

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission (IRGC) have issued fines to licensed gaming operators in the state due to non-compliance of gaming regulations. IRGC is the gaming regulator in the state and has been super busy ever since Iowa decided to expand its gaming options in 2019.

Land Based Casinos Fined For Faulty Surveillance

The IORC fined the Rhythm City Casino in Davenport and Diamond Jo Casino in Worth County for faulty camera surveillance and imposed a $7500 fine for each operator who have accepted the violations and the fines without any appeal.

Rhythm City Casino has been pulled up for similar camera surveillance breaches in 2018 and 2019. The operator found that key areas in the casino were missing camera surveillance for long hours because the equipment apparently malfunctioned. Even though the casino operator was made aware of these violations, a third violation took place in Feb 2020 where another key area of the casino lost security surveillance footage for a period of 4 plus hours.
Diamond Jo Worth suffered a similar outage in security camera footage in 2019. The lapse in security footage was apparently caused due to upgrades to their security system. The casino is now upgrading their security surveillance system which will cost the operator around $750,000. IORC stated that the huge cost incurred in upgrading the new surveillance system was taken into consideration when finalizing the fine amount.

Iowa Casinos Depend Heavily On Surveillance

Land based casinos across the United States depend heavily on camera surveillance and casinos in Iowa are no exception. The casino security team monitor CCTV footage on a 24/7 basis to keep their patrons and staff safe and to also be alert to any criminal activities taking place in the casino.

Video footage is also used to see if players are cheating at the table by using edge sorting or card counting techniques and is also useful to see if casino staff are performing their roles correctly.

A card dealer was arrested at a Waterloo casino back in June 2019 after video footage proved that the dealer deliberately used a false shuffle to help certain players at the table improve their odds of winning.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation reviewed the allegations brought by the casino against the dealer and video surveillance footage proved that the dealer had tried to cheat the casino.

These fines issued by the IRGC send a strong message to the rest of the licensed gaming operators to stay compliant or be prepared for a fine. These fines usually increase if a gaming operator has multiple violations.