Ron Asher, the Gaming Control Board’s enforcement chief, says his agency regards underage gambling as “an industrywide problem” and that several more cases are being prepared against other casinos. The case is widely seen here as a warning that gaming authorities believe the casinos are too lax about monitoring the behavior of people under 21, the state’s legal age for gambling. (The 19-year-old lost more than $6,200 in three hours of blackjack.)īally’s has agreed to pay a fine of $20,000 to $25,000 and to toughen its enforcement of underage gambling rules, according to officials of the casino and the State Gaming Commission. Last month the State Gaming Board issued the first citation to a Strip casino-ironically Bally’s, which discourages family business-for allowing a minor to gamble. The family market also means not only parents changing diapers in the casino but an apparent increase in gambling violations by minors. And if you can’t make the money in the casino, you’re going to have to make it up in the room rate.”

“Are (family customers) playing as much in the casinos? No, they’re not.

“This town was built on cheap rooms and cheap meals to get people to gamble,” says Dean Harrold, a senior vice president of Bally’s. That in turn will cut into Las Vegas’ price advantage over such more-established family resorts as Orlando, Fla. (He estimated he had spent about $15 pumping quarters into Mortal Kombat II and virtual reality combat games.)īut Schibrowsky and others argue that Vegas is so dazzled by the near-term success of its family promotion that it has not focused on the problems a radical change in tourist demographics would bring to the city.įor one thing, the traditional practice of using rooms, restaurants and even air fares as loss leaders to get customers to the playing floor will have to be reconsidered if the number of rooms occupied by non-gamblers continues to rise. “It’s awesome,” said Randy Dickenson, 13, of Chicago after an hour’s play at the Luxor Hotel’s vast, two-story video arcade.

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