Hard Rock AC Sued Over ‘Short-Changing’ Slots Cash-Out Vouchers
Posted on: November 8, 2022, 01:59h.
Last updated on: November 8, 2022, 04:43h.
A New York slots player is suing the Hard Rock in Atlantic City, claiming the casino is short-changing its customers.
A proposed federal class action lawsuit filed Saturday in the Eastern District of New York accuses Hard Rock of breach of contract, conversion, and unjust enrichment. That’s in relation to its “deceptive, unconscionable, unlawful, misleading, and unfair” cash-out voucher policy for slot machines.
After playing, gamblers who wish to cash out unused credits receive a printed voucher that can be redeemed at electronic kiosks positioned throughout the casino. These machines only pay out whole dollar amounts. They don’t dispense coins and don’t provide “any meaningful instruction” on how to redeem the balance, according to the lawsuit.
Instead, the kiosk produces another cash-out ticket for the remaining balance, which can be redeemed for coins in another part of the casino, according to the lawsuit. Many customers are reluctant to do this because they know they may have to wait in a long line for less than a dollar.
And all that small change adds up.
‘Makes Customers Gamble More’
“Many players are unsure of where to redeem their vouchers, and the ones who are decide it is inconvenient to wait in a line for more than 40 minutes to obtain the change they are entitled to,” claims the lawsuit. “The result is that players like Plaintiff discard their vouchers or even toss them into a fountain, the same way people toss actual change into fountains.
“The practical impact of not dispensing the amounts beyond whole dollars lures customers to make more wagers, especially since they have to trek to far ends of the casino to receive their change,” it adds.
Plaintiff Vincent DiBenedetto of East Meadow, New York, says when he was presented with cash-out tickets for small change, he fed them back into a slot machine or threw them away because of the inconvenience of redeeming them.
The lawsuit argues this is a “deceptive business practice” designed to make players gamble more and is in breach of the federal Consumer Fraud Act.
It notes that many casinos round player balances upwards to the nearest dollar when issuing cash-out tickets. However, a recent lawsuit accuses Caesars Entertainment’s Horseshoe Casino and Hotel in Bossier City of rounding down on slots receipts.
Build a Better Mousetrap
The Hard Rock Atlantic City is operated by Hard Rock International (HRI), owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. HRI has been approached for comment.
DiBenedetto is asking for monetary, statutory and/or punitive damages and interest.
“A Las Vegas casino owner once uttered that ‘when we put 50 machines in, I consider them 50 mousetraps. You have to have a mousetrap to catch a mouse,’” declares the lawsuit. “However, Defendant employs certain ‘mousetraps’ with no relationship to any odds and where patrons lose every single time.”
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Last Comments ( 5 )
A very bad look ! Blame no housekeeping on covid. Blame coin shortage on their policy, and find a way to incorporate covid into the problem. New topic: Resorts World zeroed out my rewards points to zero. I memorized my 12/31/2001 points, and they were gone on when I was in the casino 1/8/22. (Probably because I could recite my 12/31 balance, they reinstated my points, but laughed in my face when I asked for a statement. THERE ARE NO REWARDS STATEMENTS, at Resorts World (or so they would have me believe.) So, I get my points back, thinking it would be worth about $14 towards a sandwich. It turns out that I had my decimal point in the wrong spot. It was only $1.40. I refused to buy any food there because the food was so expensive. 3 days later they erased these points again. I will never spend money at Resorts World, but I will sneak into their pool and eat their free apples they place out on the check-in counter
I gamble all the time at the Hardock and just take it to the cage if you are that desperate for your coins! Or hold on to it till your next visit and just add to it. Or give it to someone else to play! That is common sense! You can't be too broke to be filing such a Ludacris lawsuit!
Most casinos employ the same type of ticket cashing machine,I've even encountered jackpot payouts with change ticket ex. FOXWOODS .my experience would be to play change and make whole dollar amount or wait a few minutes in line for change.
MORON ALERT: Now I’ve seen it all. Another pathetic, loser gambler finds an ambulance-chasing lawyer to file a class action suit because he’s too stupid to cash the ticket and too lazy to walk over to the cage and cash his 53 cent ticket (after probably losing hundreds or thousands of dollars). That case will be dismissed so fast it’ll make their heads spin.
This Literally Just happened to me on 11/5/22 .. I said to my husbsnd atleast if were going home with nothing were going home with change ... Not The Case ! U couldnt have said it any better rip off ! Keep the change ya filthy animals