{"id":107087,"date":"2019-06-17T07:21:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T14:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=107087"},"modified":"2019-06-17T08:25:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T15:25:03","slug":"147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/","title":{"rendered":"147 Tourists Report Getting Sick at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Since Start of June"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 147 tourists vacationing in the Dominican Republic have reported recent or historical illnesses while staying at the Hard Rock Punta Cana via the website iwaspoisoned.com<\/a> in June alone. Of those, 128 were posted in just the past week.<\/p>\n

\"Hard
Trouble in Paradise? Why are so many people — including many American tourists — falling ill in the Dominican Republic, and at the Hard Rock, Punta Cana in particular? (Image: Hard Rock Punta Cana)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The news comes amid a spate of suspicious fatalities<\/a> of otherwise healthy US vacationers at resorts in the Caribbean nation.<\/p>\n

At least two deaths have been reported at the Hard Rock Punta Cana, which is a franchised property within the portfolio of Hard Rock International, a company owned by the Seminole Native American tribe of Florida.<\/p>\n

Iwaspoisoned.com is a consumer crowdsourcing website that tracks food-borne illnesses by offering a platform for people to report illness after eating meals at hotels or restaurants. Casino.org<\/em> cannot account for the veracity of each post.<\/p>\n

Violent Illness<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Last week, the food poisoning website\u2019s founder, Patrick Quade, told The New York Post<\/em> that almost 70 tourists had reported succumbing to illness while staying at resorts in the Dominican Republic since March — that\u2019s up from ten reported in the country for the whole of 2018. The vast majority were guests at the Hard Rock Punta Cana.<\/p>\n

Since the publication of the Post<\/em> article, more than a hundred more have left messages on the platform describing symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, and fever while staying at the Hard Rock. Some claim they were hospitalized as a result of their illnesses.<\/p>\n

After 2 days, my husband became violently ill with diarrhea, fever and nausea. A day later, I became ill with the same, including fever and chills,\u201d <\/span><\/strong>reads one post.<\/span> \u201cThese symptoms lasted the entire trip. I would estimate that over half of our group became ill as well, some with additional respiratory symptoms that mimicked influenza.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While reviews on TripAdvisor vary — with many users rating the hotel highly — many others also report illness. A disclaimer on TripAdvisor currently reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cTripAdvisor has been made aware of recent media reports or events concerning this property which may not be reflected in reviews found on this listing. Accordingly, you may wish to perform additional research for information about this property when making your travel plans.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eighth DR Death Reported<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The news comes shortly after the death of another US tourist was reported last week, bringing the number of confirmed fatalities to eight.<\/p>\n

Leyla Cox, 53, an MRI technician from Staten Island in New York, died on Tuesday at the Excellence resort in Punta Cana, as her son Will Cox told NBC News.<\/p>\n

Cox said the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic told him a toxicology test would not be performed, because the toxicology machine was broken.<\/p>\n

Bootleg Booze, Pesticides May Hold Answer<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Post<\/em> reports the FBI will take blood samples from American tourists who have died in suspicious circumstances in the country\u2019s resorts, some after reportedly consuming a drink from the minibar of their hotel room.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Post<\/em> sources, the federal agency is working with local authorities to discern whether bootleg alcohol might be the source of the spate of mysterious fatalities of hotel guests. Another theory is that chemical pesticides could be to blame.<\/p>\n

Experts say the symptoms reported by victims — severe vomiting, diarrhea and respiratory problems — are consistent with exposure to methanol, which is highly toxic to humans and sometimes used to adulterate bootleg liquor \u2013 as well as to organophosphates, powerful nerve agents used in pesticides.<\/p>\n

In extreme cases, exposure to some organophosphates could result in cardiac arrest, which has been identified as a cause of death in several cases.<\/p>\n

In a statement last week, the Hard Rock Punta Cana said the safety of its guests \u201cis now and has always been our highest priority\u201d and that it was \u201cconfident that all operational protocols were followed to ensure the safety of our guests.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Casino.org<\/em> has reached out to Hard Rock International for comment and is awaiting the company\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

\n

Potential DR Casino and Tourism Impact<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The gaming industry in the Dominican Republic is closely linked to the country\u2019s tourism industry, which accounts for some 11.6 percent of its GDP. There are around 60 land-based casinos<\/a> — mainly for the benefit of the six million foreign tourists that visit each year — and these are generally esconced within large all-inclusive resorts, such as the Hard Rock.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just over half of all tourists to the DR are from the US.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some 147 tourists vacationing in the Dominican Republic have reported recent or historical illnesses while staying at the Hard Rock Punta Cana via the website iwaspoisoned.com in June alone. Of those, 128 were posted in just the past week. The news comes amid a spate of suspicious fatalities of otherwise healthy US vacationers at resorts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":107090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n147 Tourists Report Illness at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana in June<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hard Rock Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, has become the target of over a hundred complaints of mystery illnesses in past week.\" \/>\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\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"147 Tourists Report Illness at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana in June\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hard Rock Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, has become the target of over a hundred complaints of mystery illnesses in past week.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/\" \/>\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=\"2019-06-17T14:21:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-17T15:25:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/punta-cana.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/\",\"name\":\"147 Tourists Report Illness at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana in June\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/punta-cana.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-17T14:21:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-17T15:25:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Hard Rock Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, has become the target of over a hundred complaints of mystery illnesses in past week.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/punta-cana.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/punta-cana.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Trouble in Paradise? Why are so many people so many American tourists falling ill in the Dominican Republic and at the Hard Rock, Punta Cana in particular? (Image: Hard Rock Punta Cana)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#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\":\"Live Casinos\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/live-casinos\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"147 Tourists Report Getting Sick at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Since Start of June\"}]},{\"@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\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"147 Tourists Report Illness at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana in June","description":"Hard Rock Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, has become the target of over a hundred complaints of mystery illnesses in past week.","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\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"147 Tourists Report Illness at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana in June","og_description":"Hard Rock Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, has become the target of over a hundred complaints of mystery illnesses in past week.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-06-17T14:21:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-17T15:25:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/punta-cana.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/","name":"147 Tourists Report Illness at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana in June","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/punta-cana.jpg","datePublished":"2019-06-17T14:21:16+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-17T15:25:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Hard Rock Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, has become the target of over a hundred complaints of mystery illnesses in past week.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/punta-cana.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/punta-cana.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"Trouble in Paradise? Why are so many people so many American tourists falling ill in the Dominican Republic and at the Hard Rock, Punta Cana in particular? (Image: Hard Rock Punta Cana)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/147-tourists-report-illness-at-hard-rock-casino-punta-cana-in-june\/#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":"Live Casinos","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/live-casinos\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"147 Tourists Report Getting Sick at Hard Rock Casino Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Since Start of June"}]},{"@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\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107087"}],"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\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}