Illinois to Check IDs at Casinos
The state of Illinois will soon become the first U.S. state to require its casinos to check I.D. cards in an attempt to keep problem gamblers from going over the edge in Illinois casinos.
Starting Aug. 15, workers at the nine Illinois casinos will start checking drivers licenses and or state IDs of everyone who wants to board the casinos that looks 30 years old and younger. The cards will be swiped through an electronic bar code machine which is designed to confirm the information contained within, mostly to automatically catch problem gamblers trying to enter the casinos.
There are more than 3,600 people registered in Illinois casinos since the state began offering a self exclusion program from the casinos in 2002. Barely 330 of these are under 31 and are more to be designated as a test group for further practice of carding under 31s at the casinos.
Since you must be 21 or older to gamble aboard casinos, a side benefit is that they believe they will catch more underage people trying to enter the casinos as well; which is another problem with gambling in the Midwest states.
The efforts of the Gaming Board to evaluate these practices will continue and when the results come in these will be evaluated to their effectiveness too. At some point, there may be a new rule instated to require persons of all age groups to show identifications when entering Illinois casinos due to the rising problem of gambling addiction and underage gambling.
