Caesars Wrongfully Keeps Casino Players’ Change, Class Action Alleges [DISMISSED]
Last Updated on May 16, 2023
Young v. Caesars Entertainment, Inc.
Filed: September 23, 2022 ◆§ 5:22-cv-05331
Caesars Entertainment is among the latest casino operators to face a class action that alleges slot machine players have been wrongfully deprived of their change upon cashing out.
May 16, 2023 – Caesars “Keep the Change” Class Action Dismissed
A federal judge has granted Caesars’ motion to dismiss the proposed class action detailed on this page, finding that the plaintiff failed to establish that the damages amount at issue in his dispute with the casino operator exceeded the statutory threshold of $5 million.
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In an 11-page memo, United States District Judge Donald E. Walter highlighted that the plaintiff was short-changed, at most, $0.99 each time the Horseshoe Bossier Casino supposedly rounded down his cash-out ticket to the nearest dollar. Practically, the judge said, the plaintiff’s damages “cannot exceed more than a few dollars at most,” meaning the amount falls well below the $75,000 jurisdictional threshold that must be reached in order for the court to hold sway over his individual claims, the judge said.
“Accordingly, Young’s allegations are insufficient to allege that he alone suffered $75,000 in damages, exclusive of interest and costs, such that this Court may exercise [diversity jurisdiction],” the memo states.
Judge Walter also found that the damages of the proposed class failed to meet the $5,000,000 jurisdictional threshold for class action lawsuits. Although the plaintiff argued that Caesars has short-changed players millions of dollars by keeping the change from thousands, if not millions, of gaming vouchers, the fact that each gaming voucher is worth, at most, $0.99 means that there would need to be at least 5,050,506 gaming vouchers at issue to satisfy jurisdictional requirements for the court, Judge Walter relayed. Critically, this figure would only work if each and every gaming voucher was valued at $0.99, the judge added.
“The Court does not interpret Young’s vague allegation that there are ‘hundreds of thousands if not millions’ of gaming vouchers at issue to mean that there are more than five million gaming vouchers, all valued at $0.99, at issue,” Judge Walter stated. “Moreover, even if this is what Young intended to assert, the Court does not find this remotely plausible.”
The judge added that even if the court found that it had jurisdiction over the plaintiff’s dispute, it would dismiss the case anyway because Caesars is “not the proper defendant for this action,” as the consumer failed to sufficiently allege that Horseshoe Entertainment, who operates the casino the plaintiff attended, is the same at a corporate level as Caesars.
Judge Walter ultimately denied the plaintiff’s request to file an amended complaint.
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Caesars Entertainment is among the latest casino operators to face a proposed class action that alleges slot machine players have been wrongfully deprived of their change upon cashing out.
The eight-page lawsuit says the casino giant has essentially been “robbing” customers a few cents at a time, on millions of transactions, by rounding down to the nearest dollar the money cashed out to voucher-toting players at automatic kiosks.
These kiosks, at which a player can insert a gaming voucher that represents the dollar amount they’re owed by the casino upon cashing out, simply keep the change, the filing says, and players are not put on reasonable notice that they’ll effectively be taxed by Caesars, the suit claims.
“The players are supposed to be ensured their winnings because the Casinos are highly regulated and follow strict rules in order to preserve the public trust and their right to operate,” the complaint reads. “The Casinos have broken those widely understood and apparent rules, have violated the public trust, and are liable to the Plaintiffs.”
Players who decide to stop playing a slot machine while they still have credits can convert their credits back into U.S. dollars, the case explains. When a player wishes to cash out, a slot machine will automatically generate a gaming voucher that represents their remaining credits, i.e., the amount they are owed back by the casino, the lawsuit says.
Although at one time the kiosks at which players can cash in their gaming vouchers paid out exact change, Caesars in recent years has essentially kept that change, rounding the amounts owed to players down to the nearest dollar and paying that amount in cash, according to the suit. From there, the kiosk will produce a redemption ticket that, among other details, notes the amount requested, the amount dispensed and an indication that the casino views the transaction as “successful,” the case relays.
“The receipt then glibly recited ‘Transaction Completed Successfully.’ The receipt bore no further direction and left gamers without further option. The Kiosk simply kept the change.”
The lawsuit looks to cover anyone who visited a casino owned or operated by Caesars Entertainment nationwide between September 23, 2012 and the present who were deprived of their change by Caesars.
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