Boomtown Casino Hotel in Northern Nevada has agreed to pay state gaming regulators a $40,000 fine after operators were caught providing links to its customers that enabled them to utilize offshore gambling websites.
A stipulated settlement with the Gaming Control Board, covering a two-count complaint, was signed by Boomtown CEO Robert Medeiros on May 11 and is expected to be approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission in June.
In addition to the fine, Boomtown agreed to donate a sum equal to the payments the casino received from the online gaming activities to the Reno Problem Gaming Center, as part of the settlement.
The story was first reported by GamblingCompliance.com.
The casino, located in the Reno community of Verdi, admitted it used Affiliate Edge and Deck Media, two off-shore gambling websites located in Curacao, to allow the casino’s customers to gamble online between March and August of last year.
The two websites offered commissions to “referring partners based on the net losses of any patron referred by the referring partner.”
Nevada gaming law prohibits the offering of interactive gaming unless the company is licensed by the state.
According the complaint, which was filed May 15, Boomtown listed links on its official website to “Play Online” and “Play – Even Away,” which were links to the offshore gambling sites. The sites offered multiple real money online gambling opportunities
A year earlier, according to the complaint, Boomtown sought ways for its customers to engage in free games on its website. After determining the costs, Boomtown officials explored offering the “free” games through links to the websites of other companies.
According to the complaint, a Boomtown customer in March 2017 asked the Gaming Control Board if the online gambling activity provided by the casino was legal.
“Boomtown failed to maintain sufficient level of supervision and control over its website and its employee to prevent links on its website leading to other websites, which apparently allowed real money wagering in apparent violation of the Wire Act,” control board attorneys wrote in the complaint.
In the settlement, Boomtown also agreed to implement “suitable written procedures” and increase employee training “to prevent violations of the standards and requirements relevant to its gaming and related marketing activities, including its website and links placed on its website.”
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
