Indian regulators tour Atlantic City casinos

ATLANTIC CITY -- Federal regulators who oversee more than 300 Indian casinos in the United States visited Atlantic City for three days late last month to gather information on New Jersey casinos' internal control systems.

One commissioner and five staff executives from the National Indian Gaming Commission in Washington, D.C., toured a slot parlor at the Tropicana Casino Resort and a slot machine testing laboratory operated by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

They planned tours of Tropicana's casino surveillance operation and the casino's "hard count" and "soft count" rooms -- where the money is counted.

The commission was established in 1988 to help Indian tribes keep their casinos honest, profitable and free of mob infiltration. Two years ago, the panel enacted minimum internal control standards to be met by the casinos.

They involve how the casinos monitor gamblers and employees alike, especially in sensitive areas like surveillance and money counting.

Now, those standards are being updated.

"We're here to find out how some of the other jurisdictions do it," said Commissioner Terry Poust.

Changes in technology have made some of the existing regulations obsolete, she said.

Tropicana was chosen in part because its parent company, Aztar Corp. of Phoenix, operates no Indian casinos. The commission members feared opening themselves to conflict-of-interest concerns if they were to stay at an Atlantic City casino run by a company that also operates a tribal casino, general counsel Kevin Washburn said.

Poust was accompanied by Washburn, auditor Joe Smith, financial analyst Tim Russ and special assistant Denise Desiderio. They were given a tour of Tropicana slot areas by George Mancuso, vice president for slot operations.

"Anyway we can help is a benefit to both groups," Mancuso said.

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