{"id":39297,"date":"2016-09-07T06:40:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T13:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=39297"},"modified":"2016-10-12T20:37:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T03:37:00","slug":"crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/","title":{"rendered":"Crown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Sued Over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dolphin\u2019s
The Dolphin Treasure slot machine, one of Australia\u2019s most popular and enduring pokies of all time, is alleged to be manipulative in its use of images and sounds. (Image: YouTube.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/i>The Crown Casino<\/a> in Melbourne and slots manufacturer Aristocrat Gaming<\/a> are facing a legal challenge from an ex-gambler.<\/p>\n

Shonica Guy, of Adelaide, wants to force both companies to admit that their Dolphin Treasure slot machine is deceptive and manipulative.\u00a0Dolphin Treasure has been one of the most popular \u201cpokies,\u201d as they are known in Australia, since it debuted in the nineties.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Guy began playing slots when she was 17 and quickly became addicted. She is being represented pro bono by law firm Maurice Blackburn, with the support of the Alliance for Gambling Reform.<\/p>\n

The Case Against Dolphin Treasure<\/h2>\n

“There’s two particular issues, both of which are designed to create the impression that you’ve had near misses,” explained Jacob Varghese, head of social justice practice for Maurice Blackburn, regarding his client\u2019s case against Dolphin Treasure. “The evidence from psychologists who study this is that that feeling of getting a near miss is one of the things that encourages addictive behavior.”<\/p>\n

The legal challenge asserts that design features within the machine disguise losses as \u201cwins\u201d through deceptive sounds and images. It also claims there is an uneven spread of winning symbol combinations across the machine\u2019s five reels, giving a false impression of a player\u2019s chances of winning.<\/p>\n

\n

“We think it is reasonable for a player to assume that each reel has an even distribution of symbols. We want the machines to be fair;\u00a0what you see should be what you get, but that is not the case,” said Varghese, who added that the machine analyzed by the University of Monash.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Significantly, the resultant study, published by the university in 2014, found that:<\/p>\n

The design of modern multiline electronic gaming machines of the type described here does a masterful job of conveying the false impression that players can control salient features of the game that seem as if they should be related to hold or payback percentage. If a gambler learns that he or she can control the frequency and size of wins, it would seem rational to assume that the odds of profiting are likewise controllable.<\/i><\/p>\n

The problem is, they aren\u2019t. <\/i><\/p>\n

Aristocrat On The Defense<\/h2>\n

Varghese formally wrote to the two companies on Monday, who will now have two weeks to respond before the case moves to a federal court. Guy, who said she was \u201chypnotized for a decade\u201d by the machine, is not seeking financial compensation.<\/p>\n

“I just want people to know that they are being conned,” she said.<\/p>\n

Gambling is mainly regulated in Australia on a state-by-state basis and slots are built to comply <\/span>with the country\u2019s various gambling laws. But if they were proven to be deceptive in a federal court, it\u2019s possible that the government might push for tighter regulations regarding the dynamics of the machines.<\/p>\n

Aristocrat said it would defend any action vigorously if filed. \u201cAristocrat has long supported balanced and fact-based harm minimization initiatives, recognizing that these issues are complex and multi-faceted, and require ongoing collaborative effort on the part of the industry, regulators and broader community,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Crown Casino in Melbourne and slots manufacturer Aristocrat Gaming are facing a legal challenge from an ex-gambler. Shonica Guy, of Adelaide, wants to force both companies to admit that their Dolphin Treasure slot machine is deceptive and manipulative.\u00a0Dolphin Treasure has been one of the most popular \u201cpokies,\u201d as they are known in Australia, since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":39300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCrown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Face Lawsuit over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crown Casino and Aristocrat sued by ex-gambler over manipulative pokie machine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Face Lawsuit over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crown Casino and Aristocrat sued by ex-gambler over manipulative pokie machine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-07T13:40:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-13T03:37:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hqdefault.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/\",\"name\":\"Crown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Face Lawsuit over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hqdefault.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-07T13:40:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-13T03:37:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Crown Casino and Aristocrat sued by ex-gambler over manipulative pokie machine\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hqdefault.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hqdefault.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":360,\"caption\":\"The Dolphin\u2019s Treasure slot machine, one of Australia\u2019s most popular and enduring pokies of all time is alleged to be manipulative in its use of images and sounds. (Image: YouTube.com)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Commercial Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Crown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Sued Over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\",\"name\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Crown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Face Lawsuit over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot","description":"Crown Casino and Aristocrat sued by ex-gambler over manipulative pokie machine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Crown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Face Lawsuit over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot","og_description":"Crown Casino and Aristocrat sued by ex-gambler over manipulative pokie machine","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2016-09-07T13:40:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-13T03:37:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":360,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hqdefault.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Casino.org Staff Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casino.org Staff Writer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/","name":"Crown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Face Lawsuit over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hqdefault.jpg","datePublished":"2016-09-07T13:40:52+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-13T03:37:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77"},"description":"Crown Casino and Aristocrat sued by ex-gambler over manipulative pokie machine","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hqdefault.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hqdefault.jpg","width":480,"height":360,"caption":"The Dolphin\u2019s Treasure slot machine, one of Australia\u2019s most popular and enduring pokies of all time is alleged to be manipulative in its use of images and sounds. (Image: YouTube.com)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-casino-aristocrat-gaming-face-lawsuit-deceptive-dolphin-treasure-slot\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Commercial Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Crown Casino and Aristocrat Gaming Sued Over \u201cDeceptive\u201d Dolphin Treasure Slot"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77","name":"Casino.org Staff Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Casino.org Staff Writer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}