Last year’s hearingĪt the hearing, MGM National Harbor’s director of surveillance told policymakers why the legislation was needed. The burden of proof to determine the intent of the suspected cheating would be with the state of Maryland. A person caught cheating a casino out of more than $1,500 (but less than $25,000) could be charged with a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a fine of $10,000.Ī cheat would also have to pay the money back. For example, upon conviction of cheating related to an aggregate amount less than $100, a casino cheat could spend up to three months in jail and pay a small fine.

The legislation aims to criminalize well-known cheating techniques such as: The bill’s first hearing this session is scheduled for Mar. HB 1036 sits with the House Ways and Means committee, the same group of lawmakers that held the meeting on the proposal in 2018. The proposal is also publicly backed by Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, a Caesars Entertainment property. MGM is lobbying hard for the legislation this time around. There was a companion measure in the Senate that also didn’t gain any traction last year. The 2018 version, House Bill 1806, had a single sponsor and didn’t make any progress in the way of votes. The MGM property is the top casino in the state in terms of gaming revenues.

All of those lawmakers come from Prince George’s County, home to the MGM National Harbor casino. The 2019 legislation, House Bill 1036, is sponsored by Maryland Delegates Jazz Lewis, Wanika Fisher, Andrea Fletcher Harrison, Julian Ivey, and Michael Jackson. That was the argument behind a previous version of the bill, which was pitched during an April 2018 hearing. Currently, the state’s casinos can evict and ban a suspected cheater, but aside from potentially applying the law on the books related to theft generally, there’s nothing the casinos can do to set up a deterrent for common cheating tactics at the tables. Under a piece of legislation introduced on Friday, the state’s six casinos would be rewarded with criminal statutes specific to cheating at live-dealer table games. casino gambling? At least one of the state’s casinos thinks so. Caesars Palace Online Casino Bonus Code.

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