250,000 Lawsuit against SugarHouse Casino
Two players have decided to file a lawsuit against the SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, PA seeking $250,000 in damages. The two disgruntled gamblers claim that the gambling house failed to “provide an honest wagering environment.”
This is in the wake of Sugarhouse being fined $100,000 last year by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for dealing cards out of faulty decks in numerous games.
SugarHouse’s $100,000 Fine
In October 2018 the state gambling regulatory body noticed some strange things going on in the casino.
The house failed to notice that the automatic shuffling machine’s light was flashing, indicating malfunction. This resulted in many black jack, mini-baccarat and poker hands being dealt with fewer or more than 52 cards in the deck.
In addition, during some hands in a poker tournament, the cards remained in sequence instead of being shuffled into a random order.
The casino claimed this was allowed to happen due to major oversights by their employees.
They failed to properly deal with the issue of the malfunctioning shuffling machine despite the warning light flashing. Faulty deck incidents happened over the span of 8 months in SugarHouse.
The casino conducted their own investigation and found that there was no collusion between any players and the dealers, the Philadelphia Inquirer writes.
Philly’s SugarHouse casino fined $100k for using short decks: @Maykuth https://t.co/Lm8nsiT6v8
— Joseph N. DiStefano (@PhillyJoeD) October 4, 2018
So this mishap at least was a series of honest mistakes and not cheating.
The Lawsuit Against SugarHouse Casino
However, this doesn’t mean that SugarHouse is getting away with that $100K fine alone. Two gamblers, William Vespe from Cherry Hill, New Jersey and Anthony Mattia from Philadelphia are suing the casino and its parent company, Rush Street Gambling.
The two were playing black jack and mini-baccarat games at SugarHouse Philadelphia during the 8-month period in which the faulty deck incidents were happening.
According to the lawsuit, Vespe lost $103,844 during that time, while Mattia lost $147,026.
Now, they are seeking compensation for their losses because they feel the casino failed to perform its duty to host a fair and honest competition for its players.
The suit alleges a long list of wrongdoings on the casino’s part, including breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud.
However, since – as we wrote above – the internal investigation found no evidence of malicious intent, some of those claims, especially fraud, will be hard to prove.
SugarHosue is a major brand in gambling. Even one of the biggest poker TV shows on air now, Poker Night in America has filmed episodes in the Philadelphia casino.
It is unknown at this point how big of a blow this scandal will be to their reputation.
The legendary Flop with Two Queens of Clubs and Doug Polk
Faulty decks are not unheard of in poker. According to the TDA (Tournament Directors Association) rulebook, it’s one of the reasons to rule a misdeal and make the action in the hand not count.
In the Super High Roller Cash Game held at the Aria in 2015, Doug Polk and Dan Colman were heads-up on the flop. The flop came AQQ – the only problem is, both Queens were of clubs.
As the rule dictates, the action was void and everybody got the chips they had put into the pot in that hand back.
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