Carding All Players

The Illinois Herald-Review reported that the Illinois Gaming Board is considering the "card-everyone" idea as a way to catch those who voluntarily have agreed to be arrested if they board one of the state's riverboat casinos. The board is looking for public input on the matter during a Dec. 3 meeting in Chicago.

The State's nine riverboat casinos already card everyone who appears to be under 30 to prevent those under the age of 21 to gamble. This new proposal would expand the procedure to everyone entering the casinos and has raised some concerns about efficiency for detecting those who have voluntarily banned themselves from gambling.

Since 2002, people who believe they have compulsive gambling problems can voluntarily put themselves on an exclusion list, essentially agreeing to be arrested for trespassing if they gamble anyway. There are presently about 5,200 people on the list but last year there were 16 million players admitted to the casinos. Illinois Casino and Gaming Association director Tom Swoik said carding everyone would slow down the entry process to the casino and may prompt players to go elsewhere.

I am a big advocate of responsible gambling but I have to wonder how effective carding everyone would be. Unless the names are scanned into a database how can they be compared to the list of excluded players without causing major delays at the entrance. On a crowded weekend it will cause a major problem for players and casino employees as well.