Coast man is banned for life from Vegas casinos. Mississippi has its own ‘keep out’ list
An Ocean Springs native is one of 37 people listed in Nevada’s “black book” of people banned for life from Las Vegas casinos.
Mississippi has an equally short tolerance for those wanting to cheat their way to a win — and an equally long memory.
Instead of a black book, Mississippi has a lifetime “exclusion list,” said Jay McDaniel, gaming commission executive director. The list was established by The Mississippi Gaming Control Act and Mississippi Gaming Commission regulations.
The names and photographs of the eight people on that list — along with the reasons they are banned for life — are included on a separate page on the Mississippi Gaming Commission’s website.
The most recent addition came in January, when Prasad J. Athota of Arkansas was banned for his “notorious or unsavory reputation and continuous violation of the Mississippi Gaming Commission Regulations.”
Jerry Dale Criner of Oklahoma made the list in April 2023 and is listed as a “slot cheat.”
They other six people on the list were added two decades ago in 2001. Only one of those six was from the Coast. Vincent McFarland, added in June 2001, “has stolen or attempted to steal coin buckets from casino patrons on at least 17 occasions,” the website says.
Coin buckets are long gone from Coast casinos, but the ban on this person remains.
How to make the list
In December the Nevada Gaming Commission voted to make Shaun Benward, 36, a native of Ocean Springs, No. 36 in the state’s black book. He is an illusionist who’s been convicted of cheating at roulette in several states and faces still more charges. He’s also on the “most wanted” list in Nevada, with three aliases and a last known address in Ocean Springs.
Neal Ahmed Hearne, twice convicted of stealing casino chips, became No. 37 on Nevada’s list in April. According to CDC Reports, his addition led regulators to question “how notorious and sophisticated” the act should be for a person to be added to the “black book.’’
Mississippi regulators have had the same discussions since the first casinos opened in Biloxi in 1992. Some of the most notorious went to jail and aren’t on the list.
People aren’t added in Mississippi for minor violations — “It’s a significant reason,” said McDaniel.
Benward hasn’t made it on the list yet in his home state, but that doesn’t mean he’s not known to casinos in South Mississippi and throughout the state, McDaniel said.
There’s more than one list
Casino companies based in Las Vegas, such as Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, have their own lists they share with their properties in Biloxi, McDaniel said.
“Some properties choose to do facial recognition,” he said. The technology is capable of recognizing banned individuals before they enter a casino.
About a down states with casinos make their exclusion database public while the others keep the lists private. New Jersey, Delaware and Florida have more than 200 people on their lists, according to the IDscan.net website, while Pennsylvania has more than 1,000.
Mississippi lets problem gamblers self-exclude themselves from casinos for a minimum of five years up to a lifetime. The person currently must appear in person in Biloxi or one of the other offices to provide identification and get on the list.
“We’re actually working on a process to do it online,” McDaniel said, as part of the agency’s new website.
“There’s actually a lot more people on that list,” he said, which isn’t made public. Some of those people work in the casino.
“We want them to be able to work,” he said, but not gamble if it is a problem for them.
Someone’s watching
Cheating at Coast casinos was prevalent when the casinos first opened, until employees and visitors realized every casino has a surveillance room and staff watching.
In 2008, the Sun Herald got very rare permission to go inside the surveillance room at the Beau Rivage. It was there an agent with the Mississippi Gaming Commission reviewed tape and identified how the Tran Organization cheated at least 16 casinos in the United States and Canada, including three in Mississippi, out of $7 million.
Part of the reason Mississippi has been so successful at catching casino cheaters is the cooperation of law enforcement agencies in the state.
A 1995 editorial in the Sun Herald said officers from the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, the county Narcotics Task Force, the county Special Operations Division, the Mississippi Gaming Commission and the state Alcohol Beverage Control office “acted decisively” in arresting two groups of people charged with using devices to rob casino slot machines and with the raid on five Hancock County lounges housing allegedly illegal gambling machines.
The FBI, IRS, Coast district attorneys and the gaming commission have worked together on cheating ring investigations and arrests.
“We don’t take cheating in a Mississippi casino lightly,” Paul Harvey told the Sun Herald when he was executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission from 1992-1998, when the first casinos were opening on the Coast.
