3 Atlantic City casinos fined $14K for letting 117 underage or self-excluded gamblers bet

Three Atlantic City casinos have been fined more than $14,000 for allowing 117 underage or self-excluded gamblers to place bets.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement revealed the fines last week against Resorts, the Borgata and the Tropicana.

The minimum age for gambling in New Jersey is 21.

The state also lets people ban themselves from casinos or Internet gambling by signing up for a self-exclusion list. People on the list cannot be admitted to casinos or allowed to play online, and casinos are not allowed to send them solicitations to gamble. The violations took place between February and April of this year.

Resorts was ordered to pay nearly $7,200, representing a fine of $6,000, plus the forfeiture of the money it won from people on the self-exclusion list. The casino allowed 10 people on the list to create Internet betting accounts. Nine used the accounts to gamble.

The gambling enforcement division said the violations were due to a computer programming error.

The Borgata forfeited nearly $5,000 it won or confiscated from 66 underage gamblers between 2011 and 2015 at slot machines and table games.

Tropicana forfeited nearly $2,200 for the same offenses between 2013 and 2015.

Money won by the underage gamblers was withheld by the casinos pending forfeiture proceedings because they were not legally permitted to gamble. The money will now go to a state fund for seniors and the disabled.

The casinos did not contest the fines.

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Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC