(Radio Iowa) – Two Casinos and one sports betting operation have been fined by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. Racing and Gaming administrator, Brian Ohorilko says the Diamond Jo Worth Casino had an underage individual enter and gamble in May of 2022. “That individual entered with three adult companions — the security officer posted failed to request identification — and so that end individual entered the floor unchallenged and was on the floor for two hours and 30 minutes,” he says.

The casino was fined 20-thousand dollars for the violation. “Diamond Jo Worth has not had any commission level underage gambling violations in the past 365 days. And that is why that fine is at 20-thousand dollars,” Ohorilko says. “The first two for any casino would come in at 20-thousand dollars typically.” The Iowa West Racing Association in Council Bluffs and its Horseshoe Casino was fined 20-thousand dollars for a self-exclusion violation involving a gambler in April of 2022. “That individual, after gambling for some time had approached a security officer and had requested to self exclude themselves from casinos. The facility had indicated to the customer that there wasn’t anyone on property to enroll that individual in the statewide self exclusion program,” Ohorilko says.

He says the casino directed the person to another casino where the gambler was able to sign up — but that violated regulations. “Every casino in Iowa is expected to have someone available to enroll a customer if a customer requests, and so obviously that did not occur that particular evening,” he says. The final violation involved licensed online sports book Rush Street Interactive. Rush Street used a payment processing company that had inadvertently permitted customers to use a credit card to load their sports betting account. “During the period of time in question, Rush Street had accepted 42 credit card transactions amounting to just shy of 10-thousand dollars. Rush Street acknowledged that this was a violation,” Ohorilko says.

The company agreed to an administrative penalty of 20-thousand dollars. Ohorilko says Rush Street was one of a half dozen companies that used this payment processing company that allowed the use of credit cards, which are not legal for gambling Iowa. The other companies have all paid fines for their involvement.