The forfeitures and fines represent a tiny portion of the gambling activity conducted by Atlantic City's nine casinos and the three horse racing tracks in New Jersey that accept sports bets. The Ocean Casino Resort forfeited over $7,500 Bally's forfeited over $5,600 Freehold Raceway forfeited over $4,400 the Golden Nugget forfeited over $4,200 and Harrah's forfeited nearly $900.
The largest such forfeitures came from Resorts, which turned over more than $51,000 for incidents dating back as far as 2020. The forfeitures were ordered by the state during the last two weeks of October, but details were not released until Tuesday. Other cases involved money won by people who had placed themselves on New Jersey's casino self-exclusion list, under which casinos are supposed to make sure they don't gamble, but then gambled anyway. That time period, at least six months, has now expired and the gamblers are considered to be prohibited patrons, according to the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.
The casinos then withheld the patrons' winnings, placing them in an escrow account to give them time to prove they had gambled legally. Most of the cases involved patrons who were either asked to provide identification when claiming a manual payout from slot machines or other games, and were either found to be underage or to have produced inadequate identification.
