Two casinos agreed to pay fines today after it was discovered they were not playing with a full deck.
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission slapped Bally's Atlantic City with an $18,000 fine and Showboat Casino Hotel had to pay a $10,000 penalty. Neither casino contested the fines.
In Bally's case, a missing 7 of diamonds during games of blackjack left the casino short of a 52-card deck for nearly eight hours on April 29, 2009. Bally's staff ignored a warning light on an automatic shuffling machine that indicated a card was missing, believing there was a full deck instead.
At Showboat, a 3 of hearts got stuck in a shuffling machine at a poker table for Texas Hold ‘Em, but the missing card went undetected for about four hours on Sept. 24, 2008.
Although both casinos were fined, the commission said neither knew that a card was missing and that both have since taken steps to prevent the problem from happening again.