There are over 950 people who are on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s Involuntary Exclusion List. They likely landed on the list for theft, cheating or leaving a child unattended at a Pennsylvania casino.
During regulators’ monthly meeting on May 18, they added the first name to the iGaming Involuntary Exclusion List.
Used job to create fake online casino accounts
Sydney Shorr landed on Pennsylvania’s iGaming Involuntary Exclusion List for creating 187 fake online casino accounts at Hollywood Casino. As an employee at an optometrist, Shorr stole patients’ identities to make the accounts.
According to Dauphin County Court documents, Shorr was arrested on September 10, 2020. Shorr, 30, of Levittown, PA, was criminally charged and pled guilty in March 2021 to misdemeanor identity theft. Her sentence included three years of probation.
New Jersey man arrested for similar
In June 2021, an Audobon, New Jersey man allegedly stole identities to create and fund over 1,800 online casino accounts. Casey Ennis got charged with a list of crimes including identity and credit card theft and possession of methamphetamine.
Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, said:
“Identity theft is often traumatic for the victims, because it is by nature one of the most invasive and intimate non-violent crimes there is, and in addition to the individual victims, businesses and consumers as a whole suffer the negative financial consequences of financial fraud.”
Creating a false account is against online casino terms of service
Pennsylvania online casinos have rules for registering accounts in their terms of service.
At Hollywood Casino, account creation states, in part:
- One account which is limited to your personal use and may not be accessed by, used by, transferred to, or assigned to any other person.
- The account must also be in your own name and not in the name of any other person.
- Provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself.
- Fraudulent activities, such as creating false accounts, may cause operators to “report any criminal or suspicious activity to the appropriate authorities.”
Pennsylvania involuntary exclusion list
If you are in danger of heading to the involuntary exclusion list, you receive advance notice and get a chance to appear before the PGCB to plead your case. Shorr did not appear at Wednesday’s meeting. Only in rare instances do people plead their case.
A list of all individuals on the involuntary exclusion list is public. It contains pictures of the people and is available on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s website. Some names on the list date back to 2010. Individuals on the Involuntary Exclusion List can apply for removal from the list after five years.
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