SugarHouse Casino fined for serving 17 drinks to a patron, until he couldn’t hold his head up

State regulators on Wednesday imposed a fine of $17,500 on SugarHouse Casino in Fishtown for serving a gambler 17 complimentary alcoholic beverages over eight hours in September. The patron was arrested for public drunkenness after creating a disturbance, officials said.

According to the casino’s consent agreement with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the patron was playing Pai Gow Tiles, a table game with Chinese tiles that the casino describes as similar to blackjack.

Surveillance video showed the patron got some of the drinks at a bar, and some were served at the table. He visited the restroom six times in eight hours, and was visibly intoxicated while gambling, officials said.

“It was not until he could no longer uphold his head while playing on the Pai Gow Tiles game that a table games supervisor stopped him from receiving any more alcoholic drinks and summoned security,” according to the consent agreement. As the patron was being evicted, an altercation occurred, and he was arrested for public drunkenness.

In addition to the fine — the casino’s first civil penalty for an intoxicated patron incident — SugarHouse also agreed to retrain and discipline the beverage servers.