Photo by Howard Owens.
About three weeks ago, a minor -- a person under 18 years of age -- was found on the gaming floor at Batavia Downs, a violation of state law.
Officials at Batavia Downs self-reported the violation. The result was a $10,000 fine.
Since that violation, all guests at Batavia Downs are being asked to present an ID to prove they're over 18 to enter the gaming floor.
"I think this was actually the third (violation)," said Byron Brown, president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting. "The first one was $1,000, I believe. The second one was $5,000, and the third one was $10,000. We took immediate action after each of these to make changes. But after the third one, we went to the ID and the all-visitor policy."
The new ID policy was approved by the New York State Gaming Commission.
Staff at the state's Gaming Association informed WROTB executives that there is a push to implement an ID requirement for casinos statewide. The association's position is that requiring ID should be voluntary.
"We have already implemented it," Brown told the board during Thursday's meeting. "It's going smoothly, and whichever way it goes with the state, we are ahead of the curve, and we are IDing all customers that come into the property, and hopefully that will put us in a position where we no longer incur any fines from minors being able to find their way onto the gaming floor."
ID is being required of all customers to ensure that no youth is able to "present" as older than 18, Brown said. There was initially some push back from regular customers but that has faded, Brown said, as IDing becomes the new normal.
"We don't want to give away our money that's being earned by being fined again," Brown said. "Our security does a good job. Sean and his team do a good job. So things are going very smoothly with that at this point."
