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MGM Paid Problem Gambler To Not Report Online Glitches 30
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: A New York City man is suing an Atlantic City casino, its parent company and its online betting partner, alleging he was repeatedly disconnected while gambling online, and was given payments to prevent him from reporting the malfunctions to New Jersey gambling regulators during a nine-month span in which he wagered over $29 million. Sam Antar says he is a compulsive gambler -- a fact he says was well-known to defendants in the case including the Borgata casino, MGM Resorts International, and its online partner Entain. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in state Superior Court in Middlesex County, Antar accuses the defendants of fraud, racketeering and other transgressions. His lawsuit asserts that he experienced thousands of disconnections from the online platforms, often when he had a winning hand that was then wiped out.
His lawyer, Christopher Gramiccioni, said Antar experienced a disconnection rate approaching 50% during the nine months covered by the lawsuit. He added Antar, 46, had lost "easily hundreds of thousands of dollars" during that time. "It's one thing if you have technical issues intermittently," said Gramiccioni, a former Monmouth County prosecutor. "It is quite another when you have them 50% of the time. The casino did not take corrective action as required. They kept doubling down and giving him $30,000 a month, feeding him extra money to try to avoid scrutiny by the regulatory agencies."
In his lawsuit, Antar claims he alerted numerous employees and officials with the gambling companies to the fact that there was a serious, recurring problem with disconnections, but that they knowingly kept malfunctioning games available to the public because they were too profitable to take down. He says his complaints were made to local supervisors and VIP hosts, an online complaint portal, and even to the president of the casino and the CEO of its parent company. He also claims the companies paid him near-daily bonuses totaling $30,000 a month to keep him playing and to entice him not to report problems with the games to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. [...] Antar said employees acknowledged problems with the system were affecting other customers as well. In a July 17, 2019 text and email conversation, Antar quotes one as telling him "other players are not getting anywhere near what you are getting" in terms of compensation for being kicked offline while gambling. "In 2013, Sam Antar was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for taking $225,000 in a fraudulent investment scheme" to feed his compulsive gambling habit, notes the report.
His lawyer, Christopher Gramiccioni, said Antar experienced a disconnection rate approaching 50% during the nine months covered by the lawsuit. He added Antar, 46, had lost "easily hundreds of thousands of dollars" during that time. "It's one thing if you have technical issues intermittently," said Gramiccioni, a former Monmouth County prosecutor. "It is quite another when you have them 50% of the time. The casino did not take corrective action as required. They kept doubling down and giving him $30,000 a month, feeding him extra money to try to avoid scrutiny by the regulatory agencies."
In his lawsuit, Antar claims he alerted numerous employees and officials with the gambling companies to the fact that there was a serious, recurring problem with disconnections, but that they knowingly kept malfunctioning games available to the public because they were too profitable to take down. He says his complaints were made to local supervisors and VIP hosts, an online complaint portal, and even to the president of the casino and the CEO of its parent company. He also claims the companies paid him near-daily bonuses totaling $30,000 a month to keep him playing and to entice him not to report problems with the games to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. [...] Antar said employees acknowledged problems with the system were affecting other customers as well. In a July 17, 2019 text and email conversation, Antar quotes one as telling him "other players are not getting anywhere near what you are getting" in terms of compensation for being kicked offline while gambling. "In 2013, Sam Antar was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for taking $225,000 in a fraudulent investment scheme" to feed his compulsive gambling habit, notes the report.
Total lost? (Score:2)
The bets totaled $29 million, win some, lose some. How much did he actually lose? I guess I don't understand the addiction, but I'm in the personal responsibility camp with this one.
Addiction is literally a disease (Score:2, Informative)
which means you cannot help yourself stop. [wikipedia.org]
The only behavioral addiction recognized by the DSM-5 and the ICD-10 is gambling addiction. With the introduction of the ICD-11 gaming addiction was appended.[12] The term "addiction" is frequently misused when referring to other compulsive behaviors or disorders, particularly dependence, in news media.[13] An important distinction between drug addiction and dependence is that drug dependence is a disorder in which cessation of drug use results in an unpleasant state of withdrawal, which can lead to further drug use.[14] Addiction is the compulsive use of a substance or performance of a behavior that is independent of withdrawal. Addiction can occur in the absence of dependence, and dependence can occur in the absence of addiction, although the two often occur together.
I added the bold. You must be lucky enough to have neither experienced any addictions nor to have anyone close to you who have.
Re: (Score:2)
Look, it's literally not disease, and the current version of the DSM actually pathologizes asking your doctor too many questions so maybe don't cite it unless you want people to know you're a fascist.
Gambling addiction is a disorder, but unless you can catch it from somewhere, it's not a disease.
Re: Addiction is literally a disease (Score:1)
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so maybe don't cite it unless you want people to know you're a fascist.
Take some of your own advice. You clearly don't know what the word fascist means.
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Fascist = those that disagree with me.
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Fascist = those that disagree with me.
Exactly
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I guess I don't understand the addiction, but I'm in the personal responsibility camp with this one.
Sure, I am right there with you but the casinos have responsibilities as well. Usually a jurisdiction will impose some duty of care on in the licensing legislation. It's all a bit foggy and hand wavy but the intent supposedly is to prevent patrons from unsustainable losses. From my own experience in the cash cage the casinos know all of the regular patrons and they know who is losing big.
It is all highly hypocritical as the operator and the state/province/county/whatever has a lucrative revenue stream g
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but something is wrong when governments depend so heavily on gambling.
The Revolutionary War was partially funded by a lottery [history.com], among other times lotteries were used by the government.
It is hard to believe gambling is just another form of entertainment after watching people piss away their paychecks at the tables or slots.
I gamble once a year at a local casino and play the lottery when it gets big. However, I don't wager any more than what I bring with me or expect to lose. It is a form of entertainment.
T
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I gamble once a year at a local casino and play the lottery when it gets big. However, I don't wager any more than what I bring with me or expect to lose. It is a form of entertainment.
Sure, for you it is the odd night out. When I do a night in the cage cashing in chips, 90% of the people don't look "entertained"; they look at best rueful or chagrined but many are sad, regretful, depressed or angry. Shitty fun.
The cash river isn't filled by people like you and you are definitely in the minority.
A fool's wager (Score:3)
Gambling is a fool's game, the longer you play the less likely you are to get or stay ahead.
I gamble and have done for 30 years. Only small wagers and only on longshots and multiple legs. So while I rarely win, I never lose more than $20 in a week. But when I win, oh lordy!
My best is almost $5,000 for a $1 wager on a 12 leg multi on football (soccer) world cup qualifiers. Each leg I selected the favourite. Some for as little as $1.15 but multiplied it added up.
All up, of course I'm behind. But on my spend, I just view it as part of my entertainment budget.
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Compulsive gambling is hard enough to understand, but I especially don't understand online gambling. In a physical game, you can see the dice, the card or the roulette wheel. While you cannot really test them, to ensure they are honest, there is at least a limit to the kind of cheating that can take place.
Online? All bets are off. The casino can literally do anything it wants. Stack the deck? Eliminate randomness altogether, and just lead the game to a desired outcome? Disconnect you, when you are about to
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Re: A fool's wager (Score:2)
Gambling is a fool's game, the longer you play the less likely you are to get or stay ahead.
That depends on what you're betting on. In terms of "casino games" poker is at least an even odds game, and does have a skill component so you can come out ahead over the long run. Things like sports betting can also yield consistent wins if approached correctly. But ultimately there can only be winners if there are losers, and most people are going to lose most of the time on any type of betting where the wins are big enough to attract people.
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Gambling to get ahead is stupid. The house always wins.
Gambling is, however, a game. That is, you pay money and get some entertainment
If you treat it as a game, it becomes another entertainment option - you can play games at a casino, watch a movie, eat out, or do many other things to entertain yourself.
Of course, like all entertainment, you have to stick to a budget, and casino games are a bit addictive so you alwa
I will fix the bugs for $30k/month (Score:2)
For $30,000/month they could have paid people to fix the bugs.
Re: (Score:3)
For $30,000/month they could have paid people to fix the bugs.
Bugs? Or was $30k/month less than they might have lost with the hands that the gambler had when he was disconnected?
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I did not consider it that way. You are a devious genius: maybe they were "strategic disconnects"
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That is I think the basis of the lawsuit. The disconnects were deliberate to maximize the profits of the website by stopping people from winning. That would likely fall foul of a lot of gambling legislation.
Hmmm ... (Score:2)
Sam Antar says he is a compulsive gambler
Well then, as long as they patched their platform they'll be getting their money back soon enough.
Jeff Bezos will NOT have to pay that one (Score:2)
TFT forgot to say that this is MGM Resorts (but, to be fair, it could be understood by context ;-) ).
Bezos Bought MGM Pictures, separate entity
As soon as I saw the name Antar... (Score:5, Interesting)
...I had to scan for the reference to Eddie. It's not in the summary, but it's in the linked article. This Sam Antar is the nephew of "Crazy" Eddie Antar, the outfit I bought my first stereo from. Sam Antar was also the CFO of Crazy Eddie, and was actively involved in cooking the books for many years, using methods he describes in detail on his website: https://whitecollarfraud.com/c... [whitecollarfraud.com] With his public stance as an advocate for financial reporting reform, it's truly C-R-A-Z-Y for MGM to have been actually paying him off under the table, and for him to be taking the payments.
Occam's Razor (Score:3)
Crazy Eddie CFO (Score:2)
online disconnections plague other gaming as well (Score:2)
Online games where you bet on loot-boxes offered after some runs also suffer from disconnections. Very similar dynamic, where a disconnect before the final boss can result in losing the entire run as well as access to random "loot" payouts.
If regulators take action against online casinos for disconnects, shouldn't they also look at similar regulation(s) for online PvP games that encourage betting to gain access to top tier items needed to gain levels on leaderboards as well as PvP scores.
Rage-Quit (Score:2)
50% disconnect and still played? (Score:2)
So you experience 50% disconnects and you still play the site?
The summary doesn't really say what the 50% disconnect refers to (is it 50% of the time you have a winning had or 50% of all hands played) but if I was on a site with 50% disconnects I think I would find a different site to play.
Yeah, uh huh (Score:1)