{"id":143018,"date":"2020-07-28T07:19:08","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T14:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=143018"},"modified":"2020-07-28T10:15:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T17:15:16","slug":"three-card-monte-lawsuit-against-atlantic-lottery-vlts-tossed-by-canadas-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/three-card-monte-lawsuit-against-atlantic-lottery-vlts-tossed-by-canadas-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Three-Card Monte\u2019 Lawsuit Against Atlantic Lottery VLTs Tossed by Canada\u2019s Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Canada, a longstanding lawsuit<\/a> that sought to demonstrate that the Atlantic Lottery Corp\u2019s video lottery terminals (VLTs) were little more than deceptive \u201cthree-card monte\u201d games has been thrown out by the highest court in the land.<\/p>\n

\"atlantic
The Atlantic Lottery Corp\u2019s VLT odds may be lousy, but they\u2019re not quite criminal, according to Canada\u2019s Supreme Court. (Image: ALC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Supreme Court of Canada<\/a> overturned a Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal decision that had cleared the way for a class-action suit, which could have been joined by up to 30,000 people. This included anyone who had played the VLTs between 2006 and 2012, when the claim was originally filed.<\/p>\n

The Atlantic Lottery Corp is jointly owned by the four provincial governments that comprise Atlantic Canada: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and Labrador.<\/p>\n

The lead plaintiffs, Douglas Babstock and Fred Small, argued the terminals were illegal because they violated the prohibition of three-card monte in Canada\u2019s criminal code.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ancient Con Game<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Three-card monte — or the cup\/shell game — dates to at least the 15th century and still exists as a confidence trick today, especially in tourist hotspots. The game appears to be simple. But in reality, there is no way for the unsuspecting mark to win, thanks to the trickster\u2019s sleight of hand.<\/p>\n

\n

The lottery\u2019s VLTs are similarly deceptive, according to the lawsuit, which noted that the odds of winning the $500 maximum prize from a VLT in Newfoundland and Labrador are around 270,000 to 1. That means, mathematically, a player should expect to lose around $30,000 before hitting the jackpot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As lousy as those odds may be, at least the lottery\u2019s VLT players still have a small chance to win,\u00a0 unlike the plaintiffs here. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the claims made in the case were \u201cbound to fail.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018No Reasonable Chance of Success\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The criminal code prohibits games \u201csimilar to\u201d three-card monte, which, in the opinion of the Supreme Court, refers to the game\u2019s mechanics rather than an \u201cabstract feature of deception.\u201d<\/p>\n

To qualify as \u201csimilar to\u201d three-card Monte, a game would require, at minimum, a player betting on \u201cthe location of an object after a series of manipulations,\u201d wrote Justice Russell Brown on behalf of a majority of judges.<\/p>\n

\n

Nothing in the pleadings describes VLTs as operating in this manner,\u201d<\/strong> Brown added. \u201cThus, the claim that VLTs are similar to three-card monte has no reasonable chance of success.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOne would expect that, had Parliament sought to prohibit broadly deceptive gambling games, it would have straightforwardly done so,\u201d continued Brown.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Canada, a longstanding lawsuit that sought to demonstrate that the Atlantic Lottery Corp\u2019s video lottery terminals (VLTs) were little more than deceptive \u201cthree-card monte\u201d games has been thrown out by the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court of Canada overturned a Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal decision that had cleared the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":143019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,69293],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Three-Card Monte\u2019 Lawsuit Against Atlantic Lottery VLTs Tossed by Canada\u2019s Supreme Court - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Canada, a longstanding lawsuit that sought to demonstrate that the Atlantic Lottery Corp\u2019s video lottery terminals (VLTs) were little more than\" \/>\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\/three-card-monte-lawsuit-against-atlantic-lottery-vlts-tossed-by-canadas-supreme-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Three-Card Monte\u2019 Lawsuit Against Atlantic Lottery VLTs Tossed by Canada\u2019s Supreme Court - 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