In the past, our blog has discussed how the patrons of Atlantic City’s seven major casinos should be aware that law enforcement maintains a strong and consistent presence at these establishments. Indeed, troopers with the Casino Investigations Unit are busy cracking down on standard criminal offenses and violations of the state’s Casino Control Act 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
However, it’s not just not casino visitors who need to be aware of this, but also the employees and managers working for these gaming organizations. That’s because the aforementioned Casino Control Act expressly prohibits certain activities on the part of casino workers, calling for rather stringent penalties for those found to be in violation.
By way of illustration, consider the Act’s making it a criminal offense for any person to knowingly operate, carry on, conduct, deal, or knowingly allow to be operated, carried on, conducted, or dealt “any cheating, or thieving game or device.”
Furthermore, the Act proscribes operating, carrying on, conducting or dealing any games using dice, cards or mechanical devices (or some combination thereof) that a person knows have been tampered with, or otherwise deployed in a manner that tends to either deceive the public or alter the results of the casino game.
While this would certainly seem to cover the entire spectrum of possible cheating by employees, the Act nevertheless takes things one step further by criminalizing not only the knowing use of loaded dice, marked cards or tampered machines, but also the knowing possession of said items.
As for the potential penalties, these actions are all treated as a fourth-degree offense, which is typically punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to 18 months in prison. It’s important to note, however, that the Act dictates that the amount of the fine can actually be increased to a maximum of $50,000.
What all of this serves to underscore is that casino workers here in New Jersey must take these types of charges seriously, meaning they should seriously consider speaking with a skilled professional who can protect their rights and their reputation as soon as possible.