By Brandi Watters
The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. —
Hoosier Park’s casino in Anderson accounted for 19 of the complaints filed in 2009, according to Jennifer Reske, deputy director of the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Although a previously published count indicates that just 14 of the complaints originated at Hoosier Park, Reske said a recent count adds five more complaints.
Just eight of those complaints were answered, she explained, leaving 11 without any response from the state agency.
Reske said the agency didn’t even realize there was a problem with its responses to complaints until the Munster newspaper submitted a request for gambling complaint records.
“They made a public records request and the records were provided. We didn’t really look closely at the records. We saw the story that we had failed to respond,” she said.
News that a staff member had failed to respond to complaints came as a shock, she said.
“It’s unacceptable what happened. We’re embarrassed by it.”
Reske said the agency is trying to contact Harold Turner, the Westfield man who complained that Hoosier Park didn’t pay him when he won a $25,000 jackpot in 2009.
Reske said the commission did investigate the claim and found that the casino was right, Turner had not hit the jackpot.
Reske said it appears that Gaming Commission staff did investigate the complaints, but a single staff member failed to notify those who filed complaints of each investigation’s findings.
A new electronic system makes it impossible for a complaint to go without a response, she explained.
Reske said that 30 days after a complaint is filed, an alarm is triggered in the system, alerting staff members that a response is due.
Hoosier Park’s Grant Scharton said most complaints about the casino involve the membership club benefits and staff service.
“Our experiences with the Indiana Gaming Commission have always been positive. We’re shocked to find out the instance of a staff member not responding in the appropriate manner, but that’s not typical of what we’ve come to find from the IGC,” Scharton said.
Contact Brandi Watters: 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com
