{"id":110259,"date":"2019-07-25T16:01:20","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T23:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=110259"},"modified":"2019-07-27T01:09:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T08:09:06","slug":"gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/","title":{"rendered":"Gamblers Withdraw Lawsuit Against SugarHouse Casino Over Busted Card Shufflers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Pennsylvania casino customers who gambled on suing<\/a> the Pennsylvania\u2019s SugarHouse<\/a> Casino because they lost money at a time when the casino\u2019s shuffling machines had gone haywire have decided to cut and run.<\/p>\n

\"SugarHouse\"
The SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia admitted to the PGCB that its card-shuffling machines were faulty and was fined by the regulator. But two gamblers who subsequently sued struggled to prove they were directly affected, according to the casino\u2019s lawyers. (Image: Rush Street Gaming)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gamblers Anthony Mattia of Philadelphia and William Vespe of New Jersey filed a lawsuit against SugarHouse owner Rush Street Gaming when they learned the casino had been reprimanded in 2017 by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) for regulatory violations related to games that had either been dealt with decks with too few cards or too many.<\/p>\n

PCGB fined the SugarHouse for three incidents in 2017 where an automatic card shuffler had malfunctioned, dealing games where the odds would have been skewed. These included one occasion in May of that year in which 122 blackjack hands were dealt from a deck that had cards missing.<\/p>\n

Eight players were affected by the \u201cillegitimate\u201d deck, with seven of them losing money, the PCGB concluded.<\/p>\n

On another occasion, a poker tournament dealer dealt 16 hands with two unshuffled decks after the automatic shuffler broke down. The cards were dealt in sequential and suited order, as if they had been bought, unshuffled, from a store.<\/p>\n

The PCGB found that on both occasions SugarHouse staff had failed to address a warning light on the machines.<\/p>\n

Frequent Wagerers <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The two gamblers — described in the lawsuit as \u201cfrequent wagering\u201d customers at the SugarHouse — argued that because they had been playing and allegedly losing six-figure sums at the time of the infractions, they were exposed to games that were unfair, causing them significant financial harm.<\/p>\n

\n

The gamblers sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from the casino for breach of contract, negligence, and unjust enrichment.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But, as first reported by PennBets, lawyers for Mattia and Vespe have voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout prejudice\u201d means they are free to reconsider pursuing litigation at a future date.<\/p>\n

But this seems unlikely. While Mattia and Vespe said they had gambled at the casino during the time frame in which the regulatory violations occurred, SugarHouse lawyers argued they couldn\u2019t state exactly how much they might have lost as a direct result of the faulty decks, or even whether they had been exposed to them at all.<\/p>\n

Off the Hook <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The defendants\u2019 lawyers also contested the court\u2019s jurisdiction over the case. Mattia and Vespe filed their lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as a diversity action.<\/p>\n

This is a procedure in which a US district court hears a case involving parties that are of separate citizenships, either because they are citizens of different US states or are non-US citizens.<\/p>\n

SugarHouse lawyers argued the plaintiffs had failed to prove diversity of citizenship between themselves and between Illinois-based Rush Street. In fact, they had not even addressed the issue. Instead, they had merely shown that each party was a resident of a different state, not a citizen, which is not \u201csufficient for subject matter jurisdiction purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defendants\u2019 lawyers gave the plaintiffs the opportunity to withdraw the complaint so the court would \u201cnot be burdened with this motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a nice try on behalf of the gamblers, but ultimately they chose to accept that advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Pennsylvania casino customers who gambled on suing the Pennsylvania\u2019s SugarHouse Casino because they lost money at a time when the casino\u2019s shuffling machines had gone haywire have decided to cut and run. Gamblers Anthony Mattia of Philadelphia and William Vespe of New Jersey filed a lawsuit against SugarHouse owner Rush Street Gaming when they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":110261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGamblers Withdraw Shuffling Lawsuit Against SugarHouse Casino<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SugarHouse in Philadelphia is off the hook over gamblers\u2019 lawsuit that claimed defective decks had caused them \u201csignificant financial harm.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gamblers Withdraw Shuffling Lawsuit Against SugarHouse Casino\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SugarHouse in Philadelphia is off the hook over gamblers\u2019 lawsuit that claimed defective decks had caused them \u201csignificant financial harm.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/\" \/>\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=\"2019-07-25T23:01:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-27T08:09:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sugarhouse.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1469\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"826\" \/>\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=\"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\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/\",\"name\":\"Gamblers Withdraw Shuffling Lawsuit Against SugarHouse Casino\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sugarhouse.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-25T23:01:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-27T08:09:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"SugarHouse in Philadelphia is off the hook over gamblers\u2019 lawsuit that claimed defective decks had caused them \u201csignificant financial harm.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gamblers-withdraw-lawsuit-against-sugarhouse-casino\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sugarhouse.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sugarhouse.jpg\",\"width\":1469,\"height\":826,\"caption\":\"The SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia admitted to the PGCB that its card-shuffling machines were faulty and was fined by the regulator. 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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. 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