Three Individuals Placed on Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's Casino Exclusion List

Alleged criminal acts lead to ban from entering Pennsylvania casinos

HARRISBURG, Pa., Dec. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today placed three individuals on its involuntary Casino Exclusion List, an action that prohibits these individuals from entering or patronizing any casino in the Commonwealth.

Under the Gaming Act, the Board can place individuals on the Exclusion List if they are career or professional offenders or whose presence in a licensed facility would, in the opinion of the board, be inimical to the interest of the Commonwealth, of licensed gaming, or both.   The list is posted on the under the Gaming tab on the PGCB's web site, www.pgcb.state.pa.us.

Four other individuals had been previously placed on the Exclusion List.

The Board only considers that an individual be placed on the list after a full and fair hearing process initiated by the PGCB's Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement and its Office of Enforcement Counsel. The individual is afforded an opportunity to answer a petition and receive a hearing.  In the case of the three placed on the Exclusion List today, each chose not to respond or request a hearing, and a default judgment was entered:

• Frank Dellisanti of Kalispell, Montana and East Hanover, New Jersey was arrested in July 2010 for passing suspicious gaming chips at several tables at Mount Airy Casino Resort.
• Paul Vargas of Bensalem, Pennsylvania was arrest in August 2010 for leaving his 12-year-old son and 7-year-old son in his vehicle while he went into parx casino and played blackjack.
• Donald Waige of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was arrested in June 2010 for leaving his 15-month-old son in his vehicle while he went into parx casino and played slot machines.

The next regularly scheduled Board meeting is Thursday, January 6, 2011 at the State Museum Auditorium in Harrisburg. The meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m.  An agenda for that meeting will be posted on the Board's  web site prior to the meeting.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board was established in 2004 with the passage of Act 71, also known as the Race Horse Development and Gaming Act.  Pennsylvania's first new state agency in nearly 40 years, the Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of the state's casino industry.  To date, with ten casinos in operation, legalized gaming in the Commonwealth has created, or helped race track facilities retain, nearly 14,000 living wage jobs, provided property tax reduction in each of the past three years for all homeowners, produced revenue that has reinvigorated Pennsylvania's horse racing industry, and provided a new stream of tax revenue to local governments that has funded scores of community projects.  A wealth of information about the Gaming Control Board and Pennsylvania's gaming industry can be found at www.pgcb.state.pa.us.  At this web site, visitors can view videos of Board meetings and on the operation of the PGCB, obtain  information on identifying a gambling problem and gaining assistance, look up future meeting schedules and past meeting transcripts, access an interactive map of casino locations, request a speaker for their group, along with much more information.

CONTACT:  Doug Harbach or Richard McGarvey, (717) 346-8321

SOURCE Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

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