button in SafariUltimate Bad Beat: Player Who Self-Excluded From Casino Gets Jackpot Confiscated
Now that's a bad beat. A woman in Pennsylvania hit a slot machine jackpot, but she won't be taking home any of the money.
Instead, the woman, who had self-excluded herself from the casino years ago, was cited for trespassing and will have her earnings confiscated, WGAL reported.
The 69-year-old player won a slot machine jackpot while gambling at the Hollywood Casino in Dauphin County on Sunday, May 31.
The police were called, and the player, from Asbury, New Jersey, was removed from the casino by State Troopers.
Why Can't She Keep Her Winnings?
According to the Pennsylvania State Police, the woman was issued a non-traffic citation for trespassing on the casino property while on the state's lifetime self-exclusion list.
The woman put herself on the lifetime self-exclusion list in 2019. Under the terms of this self-exclusion, the 69-year-old player will also have her winnings confiscated.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board website confirms that: "individuals who violate their self-exclusion terms will have any winnings confiscated and may receive a citation for criminal trespass."
The confiscated funds are collected by the PGCB and earmarked for the commission's gambling addiction prevention and treatment projects.
How Self Exclusion Works
Self-exclusions are a common way for gambling addicts to control their addiction. The PGCB offers four types of self-exclusion on three time scales — one-year, five-year, and lifetime. In this case, the woman's self-exclusion covered brick-and-mortar casinos and other "offsite venues" such as off-track bookmakers.
The other types of self-exclusion cover online gambling, video terminals, and fantasy contests. Lifetime self-exclusions do not expire. The only way for a person to remove their name from the list, is to make a request to the PGCB.
According to Daug Harbach, speaking to abc27 News about a similar case last year, in order to get off the self-exclusion list, an individual must get checked out by "a certified gambling treatment provider" who attests that "that person is okay to gamble."
In that case, a 46-year-old man had $57,000 in winnings confiscated after he played at the Parx Casino in Bensalem in February 2025.
