The fines were justified, and, if anything, they were too small.
Both casinos are Harrahs stores and the staff need to be vigilant and careful that all A S M's are operating correctly.
I have witnessed dozens of A S M malfunctions [this year] at Harrahs stores where one of the cards winds up vertical - alongside the shuffled shoe.
The official procedure is that the cards must then be hand-shuffled — but some pit critters ignore this and simply place the errant card, viewed or not, randomly toward the center of the shoe.