Montana Cracking Down on Illegal Gambling With Credit Cards

It used to be allowed that a gambler would go into a casino and could get access to cash off of their credit cards. The cash would then be used to gamble.

Years ago, Montana introduced a law that prohibited cash advances in casinos for gambling purposes. The law got stricter a few years back when a college kid got into trouble using his parents credit cards.

Now, the Administrator of the State Gambling Control Division is ready to crack down hard on casinos that do not obey the law. Casinos have been monitored the past few years, but only a couple of cases a month have been investigated.

"We've always tried to be really strident on this message on credit gambling. Credit gambling is one of the things we hate more than anything. People who would break a law that is so well-known, they're just not people we want to be in the industry," said the Gaming Industry Association's Executive Director, Rich Miller.

Casinos have been caught accepting credit. Those casinos have been dealt with in a variety of ways, including probationary periods and fines. There also have been cases where the casinos had to donate money to the Montana Council on Problem Gambling.

"It has to be a legitimate cash advance. It can't be a $500 hamburger," said Huntington, when speaking of the investigations that take place into cash advances at casinos.

March 28, 2008
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
Submit News!