Indiana Gaming Commission Enacts Comprehensive Voluntary Self-Exclusion Program

Continuing a nationwide trend toward more comprehensive self-exclusion regulations, the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) recently created a statewide self-exclusion system that will be administered and maintained by the commission.  (See IND. ADMIN. CODE tit. 68, r. 6-3-1 et seq.)

Under the new regulations, which are expected to take effect in July, any person requesting self-exclusion from Indiana casinos must apply in person at an IGC office (located in every Indiana casino) and provide certain identifying information, such as a complete physical description and photograph.  The applicant can choose an exclusion period of one year, five years or lifetime. During that period, the excluded individual can increase (but cannot decrease) the length of exclusion from casinos.  
    
Throughout the self-exclusion period, the individual agrees to forfeit any gambling winnings, players’ club points, or complimentary benefits earned during unauthorized visits to a gaming facility. However, the regulations do not specifically address whether casinos must turn over any funds received from excluded persons. 

After the self-exclusion period expires, the individual must formally request to be removed from the self-exclusion list.

The applicant also must sign a waiver and release excluding the state, IGC, their employees and agents from liability for "any act or omission related to the request for placement on the voluntary exclusion list,” including “the [exclusion] list’s processing and enforcement” and “the failure of a riverboat licensee or operating agent to withhold direct marketing, check cashing, or extension of credit to a voluntarily excluded individual.”  The waiver and release, however, do not contain these protections for casinos, their employees and agents.

In order to ensure that self-excluded persons are completely disassociated from gaming, the regulations require casinos to establish internal control procedures and systems, including the following:

• Distributing the voluntary self-exclusion list to appropriate personnel
• Providing immediate notification to commission agents, and security and surveillance personnel of excluded person on the casino floor
• Making all reasonable attempts to ensure that excluded persons do not receive marketing materials (this requirement is fulfilled if an excluded person does not receive materials 45 days after the casino receives notice of the self-exclusion)
• Ensuring that excluded persons do not receive check cashing privileges or extensions of credit.

According to the regulations, Indiana casinos may share the self-exclusion list only with affiliated casinos in other jurisdictions. However, they do not address the circumstances under which the IGC can share the list with other gaming jurisdictions.

From an industry perspective, the new Indiana regulations have at least two weaknesses: 1) Self-excluded individuals are not required to release casinos from liability related to maintenance and enforcement of the self-exclusion list; and 2) The regulations fail to clarify that the self-exclusion program neither creates a minimum standard of care toward the public nor holds casino employees responsible for identifying problem gamblers.  Still, Indiana court decisions, including the recent Stulajter ruling (see previous article), should limit the threat of private lawsuits against Indiana casinos based on alleged regulatory violations.