Ok, I know I’m totally a bad person and a bad parent for finding part of this story entertaining, but come on, sometimes things are funny. And of course I would never take my kids onto a casino floor and let them gamble – I don’t even keep my payment information stored on any online accounts they might use for fear of an accidental purchase – but that doesn’t mean I can’t get a laugh out of a lady sneaking her 12-year old daughter into Sydney, Australia’s Star Casino and letting her play some slots.
You know you stifle a laugh when you see someone trip on the sidewalk and face plant. You don’t want them to be hurt, but as long as they’re not, it’s a funny sight to see. This is the same situation – I don’t want there to be any lasting problems from a tween earning her parents some comps at a My Rich Uncle video slot machine, but the visual of the kid actually playing, especially if you envision her acting like she totally belongs there, is humorous.
Liquor & Gaming NSW (New South Wales) didn’t find it so funny and fined the casino $60,000 for the incident.
Even if I wanted to do it, there’s no way my 13-year-old would ever let me sneak her into a casino to gamble. My 11-year-old son, he might, not because he wants to gamble, but because he would also probably think it’s funny and he would think it’s cool to team up for a caper with his dad.
It sounded like it was pretty simple for the 12-year-old to get in. She entered through an exit door with her mother when someone else left the casino, after which the two met up with the girl’s father. She only gambled for 17 minutes before she was caught.
Star self-reported the incident along with two others, which occurred between March and July 2019. The other two were a bit more serious. In one, a 16-year-old entered the casino via the VIP checkpoint with a person that news.com.au calls a “middle-aged male ‘platinum’ member.” She showed a fake ID at the gaming area and got through and was even served a vodka Redbull at the bar. She finally got caught when trying to enter the nightclub.
In the third situation, a 17-year-old boy got into the casino with his own license and drank and gambling for three and a half hours. He also drank vodka Redbull (I guess that’s popular with the youths these days?) and placed 42 roulette bets and 22 poker hands (I would assume video poker). Security footage shows that casino staff had 15 separate interactions with the 17-year-old. Somehow, it took them hours to finally figure things out.
Liquor & Gaming NSW Director of Investigations and Intervention, David Byrne said that it should have been relatively easy to spot the 12-year-old, considering she looked noticeably younger than a normal customer. You think? He also noted that underage kids trying to sneak in through exit doors should have been an obvious ploy for security to keep on an eye on.
The fines for the two teenagers were $15,000 each.
