Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino is being sued by two frequent players who say they lost a combined $250,000 due to malfunctioning shufflers and bad playing cards.
In July 2018, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board levied a $100,000 fine on SugarHouse for using “illegitimate” decks of playing cards, and for a malfunctioning automatic shufflers on blackjack, poker and mini-baccarat tables.
Anthony Mattia of Philadelphia, and William Vespe, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey filed a federal lawsuit against SugarHouse, claiming the losses they incurred while playing table games at SugarHouse were due to these two rule violations. They are asking for reimbursement of losses plus compensatory damages (the exact amount was not revealed) and court costs. Mattia and Vespe lost $147,206 and $103,844, respectively, between May 2017 and January 2018, which fell within the period of the rule violations.
In the board case, SugarHouse conceded that employees had failed to properly address warning lights on automated shufflers used at the blackjack, poker and mini-baccarat tables in seven incidents within that time frame.
“The integrity of our gaming operations is of the utmost importance. We have disciplined or terminated the employees responsible and revised procedures to help prevent recurrence,” SugarHouse spokesman Jack Horner said, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. “We deny the claims made by the individuals in this lawsuit, and cannot comment further on pending litigation.”
