Harrah's fined for marketing mistakes

August 26

A Harrah's casino will fork-over $40,000 in state fines for marketing violations, including mailing promotional materials to problem gamblers who had voluntarily banned themselves from such Missouri casinos.

Members of the Missouri Gaming Commission allowed the fines Wednesday at the same time expressing outrage about the promotional practices of Harrah's North Kansas City casino.

Harrah's general manager Bill Keena said the company considers the violations serious and has taken corrective action and will pay the fines without any appeal.

According to the preliminary disciplinary order allowed by the Gaming Commission, Harrah's North Kansas City attained the names of 29,000 potential new customers from two marketing firms. But Harrah's failed to cross-reference the names with the roughly 7,300 people listed on Missouri's casino-ban list.

People who voluntarily place their names on the exclusion list are banned for life from Missouri casinos and are not supposed to get direct marketing materials or pamphlets from casinos.

At least six people on the voluntary casino-exclusion list complained to the Gaming Commission about getting the marketing materials from Harrah's back in May. A subsequent investigation by Harrah's showed the marketing mailings could have gone to as many as 260 problem gamblers barred from casinos.

It is said that casinos are to be more sensitive to such violations in the future. While Harrah's says that they never intended to lure any of the problem gamblers into their casinos, and that it was a simple oversight made in part by the marketing firms.

Harrah's was fined $25,000 for mailing the marketing materials to problem gamblers, and an additional $15,000 for failing to tell the Gaming Commission in advance of its coupon promotion.

Keena said Harrah's marketing director and database marketing manager, both named in the Gaming Commission's complaint regarding problem gamblers, no longer work for Harrah's.

The Gaming Commission also took preliminary disciplinary action against the President Casino on the Admiral in St. Louis, imposing a $10,000 fine for mailing customer coupons that had not been approved by the commission and which did not have tracking numbers. Some coupons also were not voided properly when redeemed by customers, the commission said.