The Isle Casino and Racing in Pompano Beach and a Slovania-based electronic table games manufacturer are both named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit that claims a dice game has been taking too big of a cut on certain winnings.
While roulette and live dice games are currently illegal in Florida, electronic versions of the games were declared legal there in 2012 when they were classified as slot machines.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in South Florida alleges that the Interblock craps game at the Isle Casino, where the games the complainants named in the suit are located, has been shorting patrons who win. The suit claims that instead of the advertised commission of five percent per dollar wagered in a successful bet, the game also takes five percent of a patron’s winnings. According to the Miami Herald report the resulting fee is 10 percent.
Cristina M. Pierson, an attorney with the Fort Lauderdale firm Kelley/Uustal, said that “Players win and get excited, and they realize the house takes a commission but they didn’t pay attention.” She said, “The reason we caught it is that someone did the math,” according to the news agency. Pierson said that she’s looked at a number of casinos, including Seminole Tribe of Florida operated casinos, and the majority of them have an Interblock game and the same scenario plays out with them. A later report on local ABC affiliate news10 states that other machines are not affected.
The class in the lawsuit will comprise Isle Casino’s Fan Club members, according to news10.
“We know who the fan club members are. There are stats to show when they played and how much they played,” Pierson said.
John Connelly is Interblock’s top executive in the U.S. and based in Las Vegas. According to the Herald report he did not respond to emails or telephone calls. Representatives of the Isle Casino’s parent company told the news agency that they don’t comment on pending litigation but said that the Isle machine was shut down when the payout structure was questioned.
Meanwhile, proposed legislation that would expand gambling in Florida, and reportedly allow slots to be licensed at facilities in eight counties in the state; license a pair of new slots-only casinos for Miami-Dade County and Broward County; and allow all pari-mutuel card rooms in Florida to run “player-banked” games such as poker, among other things, passed through the Florida Senate Regulated Industries Committee last week. Senate Bill 8 still needs to be ratified by both chambers of the state’s legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor Rick Scott.