Hard Rock Casinos Keep the Change on Redemptions Class Action

Hard Rock Café International (USA), Inc. doesn’t only offer cafés; it also operates the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. But the complaint for this class action alleges that Hard Rock profits unfairly because its ticket redemption machines give only round-dollar amounts, do not dispense change, and put up barriers of various kinds to people receiving the remaining change they are due.

Two classes have been defined for this action:

• The New York Class is all persons in New York who wagered at the Hard Rock casinos in New Jersey and the US during the applicable statutes of limitations.
• The Consumer Fraud Multi-State Class is all persons in North Dakota, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Nebraska Rhode Island, Maine, Wyoming, Kansas, Utah, Idaho, Alaska, West Virginia, and Montana who wagered at Hard Rock Casinos in New Jersey and the US during the applicable statutes of limitations.

The complaint quotes an unidentified Las Vegas casino owner as speaking of gambling machines as “mousetraps.” But it alleges that Hard Rock’s ticket redemption machines are also “mousetraps … where patrons lose every single time.”

When customers play Hard Rock’s slots or electronic table games, they often use cards or tokens, so that they end up with unused credits that they need to convert back into cash. For these credits, they receive a printed voucher that can be taken to the ticket-redemption machines.

The ticket-redemption machines are supposed to accept the vouchers and return the amount on the voucher to the customer. However, according to the complaint, the ticket-redemption machines only pay out the whole-dollar portion of the amount, then gives the customer another voucher instead of coins for the remaining amount.

The complaint alleges, “The machine does not dispense coins and does not provide any meaningful instruction on how to redeem the balance. … No signage is available anywhere in the casino informing players on where the cash the remaining balance.”

In fact, the complaint alleges that customers have to “trek to the far ends of the casino to receive their change.” The complaint also implies that the lines for this service are long, involving a wait of more than forty minutes.

Because of this, the complaint claims, customers often “discard their vouchers or even toss them into a fountain, the same way people toss actual change into fountains.” Others are led to continue to gamble, according to the complaint.

How do other casinos handle the odd-change amounts? The complaint notes three ways: They may round up the amount to be refunded, so that a customer owed $102.15 receives $103. They may offer customers the chance to donate the money to a charity. Or they may have vouchers cashed at windows with a sufficient number of live cashiers, so that customers do not have to wait so long to receive less than a dollar.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Conversion
Tags: Conversion, Gambling or Gambling Games, Incomplete Refund