Online Betting Casino

Casino: The Credit Play

Credit play is the policy of allowing persons to gamble on a credit by signing credit instruments that the casino can negotiate through normal banking channels or enforce though the courts.

Public policy debates over whether casinos should be allowed to grant credit address collection methods, effect on gamblers, and competitiveness.

Three principal arguments against casino credit are that--- allowing credit will allow casinos to engage in undesirable methods of collection; may result in casinos skimming funds by writing off gaming debts or not reporting paid debts; and will result in gamblers losing more than they can afford.

The first concern is more often associated with illegal than with legal gambling.

The former, by definition, is operated by criminals. Because of their willingness to ignore criminal statutes and engage in illegal gambling, they also have little regard for other laws, including debt collection procedures.

In contrast, legal gaming operators often undergo rigorous licensing examinations, including whether they conduct their businesses in strict compliance with all laws.

The public may confuse illegal gaming operators with legal ones. The perception of organized crime accomplices collecting gaming debts is confused with the professional and ethical enforcement of credit found virtually all places where gambling is regulated.

Engaging in any illegal collection practices would jeopardize a gaming operator's license.

In recent times, no Nevada or New Jersey gaming operator has been charged with any crimes related to debt collection, nor has any been successfully sued for such.

Good regulation can also prevent the skimming of funds through the credit process. Casinos can abuse the credit process in two ways. Most states tax gross gaming revenues, which are all sums that the casino retains as winning or won less all sums that it pays out as losses.

This allows the first method of skimming in which a person in association with a casino can obtain cash or chips by opening a credit line, not gamble, and convert the chips to cash.

The casino, in turn, makes no collection effort, and writes the debt off. The net effect is that the funds go to a third party, and the casino pays no taxes.

In the second method, a casino employee or owner can collect a debt from a patron, not report its collection, and have the debt shown as uncollectible.

These procedures ensure that one or two employees cannot work with a third party to defraud the casino. Enforcement procedures allow the regulators to verify the accuracy of the information contained in the records.

The final issue concerns whether the extension of credit encourages persons to gamble beyond their means.