It is the type of state regulation that most people are not totally aware of because of the fact that it is not always enforced; however, it is known that casinos in Pennsylvania are not allowed to serve alcoholic drinks to obviously already-intoxicated gamblers.
It's the regulation that Mount Airy Casino had actually violated 18 times in just one day. On February 1, Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board issued an order that Mount Airy Casino will be fined $25,000 for an incident that happened on October 7 last year in which three different bartenders served a total of 27 drinks within nine hours to a male casino gambler who was playing a table-top slot machine game in its Glass Bar. The board found out that the customer was obviously inebriated after he initially got nine drinks, which means that the bartenders served another 18 drinks on top of that.
The man, which the casino kept anonymous, ended up falling off his bar stool and resisting arrest by the police.
This is only the third time ever in 11 years of Pennsylvanian history in which a casino has been penalized for serving a drunk gambler. This incident had the gaming board members and the casino officials puzzled.
Mount Airy attorney Michael Sklar said, "Let me say from the outset that this is unacceptable. Mount Airy takes this very seriously. It's inexplicable what the bartenders did here. There's no excuse."
Gaming board member Greg Fajt said during the gaming board meeting in Harrisburg, "I'm glad you understand the seriousness of this. This is pretty outrageous."
Board chairman David Barash noted, "Count me naive, but I don't understand how anyone who had 27 drinks wasn't in the emergency room. I don't understand how he wasn't in a coma. What in the world were bartenders No. 2 and No. 3 thinking?"
According to the consent decree made by Mount Airy, the man started playing and drinking right after 1pm, and was served 27 rums and cokes (each 1.25 ounces of rum) until he fell off the bar stool at 10:41pm.
What happened to the three bartenders? Mount Airy has a policy of carrying out disciplinary actions for employee infractions, but Sklar said that all three bartenders were fired.
Sklar said that casino security tried to send the man to the hospital via ambulance after he fell from his bar stool, but was instead taken straight to Monroe County Prison after he resisted and the state police had to be called.
As part of the consent decree, the casino tightened its policies and had its bar staff retrained.
Source: http://www.dcourier.com/news/2017/feb/06/pennsylvania-board-pennsylvania-casino-served-play/