- (a) The Arkansas Racing Commission may initiate regulatory enforcement actions against any person licensed under this part.
- (b) Any person who willfully fails to report, pay or truthfully account for and pay any license application fee, investigative fee, or any other fees imposed by this part, or willfully attempts in any manner to evade or defeat any such fee or payment thereof shall be subject to suspension or revocation of their license and shall be liable for the imposition of a penalty, as determined by the commission.
- (c) Any person who, without obtaining the requisite license as provided for by this part works or is employed in a position whose duties would require licensing under the provision of this part shall be liable for the imposition of sanctions and subject to a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), suspension or revocation of license, or both.
(d) In addition to any monetary sanction, the commission shall, after appropriate hearing and factual determinations, have the authority to impose the following sanctions upon any person licensed pursuant to this part:
- (1) Revoke the license of any person convicted of any criminal offense for which disqualification as set forth in this part would result;
- (2) Suspend the license of any person pending a hearing and determination in any case in which license revocation could result;
- (3) Suspend or revoke the license for violation of any provisions of this part relating to casino licensees;
- (4) Assess sanctions as may be necessary to punish misconduct and to deter future violations, which such penalties may not exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) in the case of any individual licensee and in the case of the casino licensee, the penalty may not exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each violation;
- (5) Issue warning letters or letters of reprimand or censure, which letters shall be made a permanent part of the file of each licensee so sanctioned.
(e)
(1) In considering appropriate sanctions in a particular case, the commission shall consider:
- (A) The risk to the public and to the integrity of the casino licensee created by the conduct of the person facing sanctions;
- (B) The seriousness of the conduct and whether the conduct was purposeful and with knowledge that it was in contravention of this part;
- (C) Any justification or excuse for such conduct;
- (D) The prior history of the licensee with respect to compliance with this part;
- (E) The corrective action taken by the licensee to prevent future misconduct of a like nature from occurring; and
- (F)
(i) In the case of a civil penalty, the amount of the penalty in relation to the severity of the misconduct.
- (ii) The commission may impose any schedule or terms of payment of such penalty, as it may deem appropriate.
(2)
- (A) It shall be no defense to any regulatory enforcement or disciplinary action before the commission that the applicant or licensee inadvertently, unintentionally, or unknowingly violated a provision of this part.
- (B) Such factors shall only go to the degree of the civil penalty to be imposed by the commission.
(f)
- (1) A violation of any provision of this part, which is an offense of a continuing nature, shall be deemed to be a separate offense on each day during which it occurs.
- (2) Nothing herein shall be deemed to preclude the commission from enforcing multiple violations within the same day of those provisions of this part which establish offenses consisting of separate and distinct acts.