Indiana casinos look for new breed of enforcers

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Gaming Commission is turning to people who understand the gaming industry's financial intricacies to keep watch for vice on the state's riverboat casinos.\nThe commission's executive director, Ernest Yelton, said that building a new breed of enforcement agents means looking beyond recruits with experience in traditional police work.\nHe said the commission is trying to find recruits with a wide range of expertise, including candidates who majored in criminology or accounting or have other financial or related experience that could be useful in oversight of the gambling industry.\n"In the gaming industry today, the threat of criminal activity is on the financial end," Yelton told The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky.\nThe new enforcement agents -- authorized by a law passed last year -- will replace the state troopers who have patrolled the riverboats since the first one opened in 1995.\nBut the transition will take awhile because the new recruits need extensive training.\nThey will get guidance in casino games and gambling crimes, as well as training in traditional police work. The first group of new gaming agents is currently being trained and will be placed at the two Majestic Star casinos docked in Gary.\nA second class of recruits will begin training in late May and be ready to take over at Caesars Indiana in Harrison County and Casino Aztar in Evansville in late summer or early fall. That class also will staff the new casino in French Lick, which is under construction.\nFuture classes will fill posts at the remaining six casinos.\nLawmakers, encouraged by Gov. Mitch Daniels, authorized the new gaming enforcement unit last year because they wanted to move state police back to traditional law enforcement duties. About 120 officers have been assigned to the boats or to serve other regulatory functions.\nDaniels believed more specialized gaming agents who reported directly to the commission -- rather than to the state police superintendent -- also would prove more effective and efficient.\nThe commission already has hired 10 investigators to handle the background checks for the thousands of casino workers, owners, operators and suppliers.\n"That's been an extraordinary success story," Daniels said.\nRather than serving as the eyes and ears of state regulators and looking for cheaters, Yelton said the enforcement agent's job has morphed into more traditional police work, including dealing with disputes, public intoxication and fights.\nMike Smith, executive director of the Casino Association of Indiana, said the new training will be beneficial and the riverboats will do whatever is necessary to help out.\n"We'll be working 100 percent in this transition," Smith said.