2,000 Applicants for Pennsylvania Self-Exclusion

Legal casinos came to Pennsylvania in late 2006, accompanied by a system of self-exclusion that applies to all gambling locales in the state. Within six months, more than 50 people had signed up for exclusion. Since that time, self-exclusion has been something of a growth industry in Pennsylvania: in January, 2011, the state announced that 2,000 erstwhile gamblers had made use of its self-exclusion service -- and more than one-quarter of these had chosen a lifetime ban over the one-year and five-year options, though the one-year ban was the majority choice. The one-year and five-year exclusions do not simply expire; rather, the excluded gambler has to request that the self-imposed ban be lifted after the exclusion period has elapsed.