Many excuses have been given from casinos when asked about why they served drunk customers over the years, but Star City Casino has come up with an excuse for the ages. The casino claims the man they served forty-two beers to used his poker skills to keep from showing how drunk he really was.

The Casino Liquor and Gaming Control Authority fined Star City $10,000 for breaking the regulation that calls for casinos to stop serving intoxicated customers. The Authority requested a reason for why the casino employees continued to serve the man over a seventeen hour period.

"The nature of poker is that players tend to be ...very controlled in their facial expressions and body movements," said Star City, in a leaked letter to the Authority, as reported by The Daily Telegraph. "This level of control means that many of the visible signs that a person...is affected by alcohol may be minimized."

Three of the workers that were serving the man the drinks have either been fired or demoted. One of the three was unidentified, while another believes that her termination was unjust. Mikhael-Ghanime claims there were several other servers who also sold the man drinks.

The casino came away with just a little more than a slap on the wrist after the Authority reduced the fine. The casino had been in good standing with previous dealings with drunk patrons. The casino has thrown out over 6,000 customers for being overly intoxicated.

Over the past year in Australia, the focus of the government has been on reducing problem gambling in the country. That effort will continue in the new year, and the relationship between alcohol and gambling will likely be part of the research that is done in conjunction with slowing gambling addiction.