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State Goes After Casinos With Credit Gambling

By Beacon Staff

HELENA – Montana is cracking down on casinos that ignore state law prohibiting gambling on credit.

Gene Huntington is administrator of the state Gambling Control Division. He says the idea is to prevent people from losing all they have by using a credit card to gamble. The law has been on the books since 1989, and tougher enforcement rules were put in place in 2005.

That was after a Missoula college student used his father’s credit card over a two-year period to get about $49,000 in cash for gambling at eight casinos across the state.

Last year, a Missoula casino let a gambler use a credit card to obtain more than $10,000 in cash advances to gamble. The casino later agreed to reverse all the cash advances and to make a charitable donation to the Montana Council on Problem Gambling.