Lawsuit Claims SugarHouse Casino “Cheated” Gamblers Out of $250,000

The SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia is facing a lawsuit that claims two gamblers were “cheated due to unfair decks of playing cards and busted shuffling machines”. The two gamblers in the suit claim that they have lost over $250,000 over the course of eight months of betting on blackjack and other tables games. The lawsuit was filed on May 22, 2019. The timing and visibility isn’t ideal as SugarHouse is in the midst of an online sports betting launch in PA. It will be interesting to see how SugarHouse responds. We saw a situation in New Jersey earlier this year where a bettor on FanDuel Sportsbook won $82,000 due to a line error. FanDuel eventually decided to pay out the bet even though technically, they could’ve fought the case based on house rules. Will SugarHouse take a similar approach and attempt to salvage some positive publicity from a perceived negative message?

The Lawsuit

William Vespe and Anthony Mattia, the two men who filed the suit, claim that SugarHouse failed to provide a “fair wagering environment and a level playing field for wagering”. The lawsuit that was filed in federal court claims the casino incurred a handful of violations including, negligence, breach of good faith and fair dealing, fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment.

Not SugarHouse’s First Legal Issue

To support their claim, Vespe and Mattia cited the fact that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board fined SugarHouse $100,000 in July of 2018. The fine was for the use of “illegitimate decks” that were either missing cards or had too many. They also used broken shuffling machines and employees ignored the flashing warning lights on these machines.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board issued fines for a number of incidents at SugarHouse Casino from May 2017 to January 2018. That is the same timeframe that Mattia and Vespe allegedly lost over $250,000 at the casino.

Casino investigators concluded that there was no collusion with these incidents that involved different dealers and supervisors. However, two of the supervisors were fired, although one was later reinstated after an appeal.

In one incident over that span, a dealer in a poker tournament set the automatic shuffler to sort the cards in sequence as opposed to shuffling them. The dealer dealt 16 hands before noticing that the cards were indeed suited and in sequential order.

Another incident, a technician found 16 cards were still inside an automatic shuffler that was taken off of the casino floor. Investigators retraced the cards and found they were missing from six decks used in 46 rounds of blackjack for a total of 122 hands. They found that only one of the eight players who were dealt from the short deck won.

Possible Effect On SugarHouse and PlaySugarHouse

The phrase “no publicity is bad publicity” certainly doesn’t apply to this situation. With all of this news coming out a couple of weeks after the launch of the online PlaySugarHouse sportsbook, Pennsylvania residents are going to be wary of the Philadelphia Casino. Not so much the sportsbook app, but perhaps the casino and poker games that are expected to launch next month. Players who see that a casino is being fined multiple times for issues related to fair gaming are going to be hesitant to trust that operator, especially online.

Due to these recent issues, a number of players who go on bad streaks at the SugarHouse Casino or its online platform are going to be thinking in the back of their heads something may be wrong. Gamblers who can’t trust a casino are not going to want to play at that location. Especially with the launch of more mobile PA sportsbooks (and eventually casinos and poker rooms) in Pennsylvania in the coming weeks/month. In a competitive PA sports betting market that is going to give residents a number of options to choose from, more people are going to stay away from the casino with a number of violations.