AGCO Fines Casino Woodbine For Illegal Dealer Activity
Ontario’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission, which oversees gambling in the state of Hartland, has imposed a significant fine on the Ontario Gaming GTA Limited Partnership. The fine relates to a case in which a table game dealer was caught red-handed and charged with cheating while conspiring with customers at the casino Woodbine.
The case led to criminal charges against five people in April 2023, along with investigators from Ontario’s police and enforcement agency AGCO. The charges stem from an investigation into allegations that an e-waste dealer at a Toronto casino was planning with its customers to defraud the game amenity.
After the investigation, AGCO’s Regulatory Compliance Branch conducted a thorough compliance review to assess the casino’s commitment to the Gaming Control Act (1992) and Registrar’s Standards for Gaming, which the regulator determined did not take or detect appropriate action to prevent fraud and dealer collusion.
As a result of the investigation, internal financial reports and e-mails resulted in sharp and abnormal losses from electronic crab games for six months, but the casino did not take action against them. Also, table game supervisors typically did not attend the Krebs table when suspicious gambling occurred. Video footage also confirmed that the casino did not comply with the prescribed rules and protocols.
In addition, despite AGCO imposing seven violations on dealers for improperly pushing dice to customers before the casino terminated its bets, dealers were allowed to continue handling electronic craft, still fully cooperating with regulatory reviews by surveillance groups, and are now committed to addressing shortfalls.
Following the review, the operator was fined CA$80,000 by the regulator. However, the game operator has the right to appeal the Registrar’s decision to the License Appeals Tribunal. According to AGCO, it violated the Registrar’s Game Standards 4.3, 4.14 and 6.1 in that it could not prevent fraud in casino properties.
Online operators are also under investigation
AGCO has also imposed financial penalties on private eye-gaming operators licensed to provide legal games in their jurisdictions as a regulator for all legal gambling in the province. This includes C$48,000 for Unibet for violating state regulations by posting and broadcasting advertisements stating that they offer generous welcome bonuses to new users.
Prior to that, the iGaming regulator fined BetMGM and PointBet Canada for advertising and induction violations. BetMGM was fined C$48,000 for failing to comply with standards 2.04 and 2.05. PointBet Canada was also fined C$30,000 for violating the standard 2.05.
