Newcastle Casino Not Paying Jackpots

4/15/2022

Slots player Cynthia Obie was ecstatic when she hit the jackpot at the MGM National Harbour Casino in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The win was worth several thousand dollars, but the casino refused to pay out.

Newcastle Casino: Hours, Address, Newcastle Casino Reviews: 3/5. Refuses to pay winnings and shuts the machines off after a jackpot saying it was. Oklahoma Gambler Claims Casino Is Refusing to Pay $8.5m Slots Game Win. Maribel Sanchez landed her big win with a $1.25 bet on the Liberty 7s slot at the Newcastle Casino; The casino establishment refused to pay out the winnings, declaring it a game malfunction; Sanchez said the machine shut down and the screen went black as soon as the win occurred. No Joy in Newcastle as Casino Withholds $8.5 Million Jackpot Claiming Machine Malfunction Oklahoma womain claims she won almost 8.5 million from a casino, they're refusing to pay If precedent repeats, Sanchez has some work ahead of her to get her $8.46 million prize, because courts have historically sided with casinos when it comes to machine errors, malfunctions, and software snafus. NEWCASTLE, Okla. (KOKH) - An Oklahoma woman gambling at the Newcastle Casino Friday morning claims she hit the jackpot for nearly $8.5 million, but she said the casino won’t pay her.

Woman hit jackpot at MGM National Harbor Casino
Casino staff recorded her Social Security number incorrectly
The casino was legally required to confiscate her winnings
Winner mistakenly identified as owing child support money

In an interview with the local Fox News station, Obie spoke about her excitement with the win, as she needed the cash, but did not want to disclose exactly how much the jackpot was worth. She said she was an occasional casino goer and had been there that night with one of her friends on a night out.

An unfortunate sequence of events

As per the rules and regulations for casinos cashing out winnings, the staff at the casino took down info from the woman’s ID and some other key pieces of information. However, they mistakenly recorded an incorrect Social Security number, accidentally getting one of the digits wrong.

The person who subsequently came up on the casino’s system was an individual who had a large debt in the state. The debt was partly unpaid child support and partly monies owed to the government of Maryland.

The casino therefore refused to pay out any winnings to Obie. Obie began pleading with the staff, pointing out that she had never had to pay child support and knew it must be a misunderstanding.

By the time the casino discovered the error with the Social Security number, it was too late for Obie.

MGM has said its employees were following Maryland law and that the issue was no longer in their hands. The only thing the casino did to offer compensation was to give Obie free play chips worth $200. It also gave her some vouchers for drinks on the night of the incident.

Obie now plans to contact the Gaming Control Agency to discuss the incident.

What happens next?

When Obie left the casino without her money, she was told to get in touch with the Human Services Agency in Maryland to clear up the misunderstanding. The HSA is the body that looks after child support issues.

However, after paying a visit to their offices, Obie had made no progress on the issue. Her main gripe still lies with the casino itself.

She told the casino: “Frustrated, but now I’m at the point this is insane. You guys are a billion dollar corporation, you do the research. I won fair and square. I just want my money.”

MGM told Fox 5: “We are aware of this unfortunate error and have taken the necessary steps to assist Ms. Obie in rectifying this issue. Due to MLGCA rules and Maryland state law, we cannot provide an additional payout for this jackpot.

“However, if she presents the proper identification credentials to the Maryland Gaming Commission, they will provide her with the appropriate payout. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused Ms. Obie.”

The incident has triggered some community backlash for the casino. Some locals say the fault lies with the MGM National Harbor Casino, and nobody else, as it was casino staff who wrote down the incorrect Social Security number that led to Obie not receiving her winnings.

The cards are always stacked in favor of the casino. Casinos exist for one reason, and one reason alone: to take your money. They do it legally, even if it's under cloudy circumstances.

Consider the case of an Alabama man who put $5 into an electronic bingo machine at the Wind Creek Casino in Montgomery, Alabama. The casino is on tribal land operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. To the gambler's amazement, 'several noises, lights, and sirens were activated' when the machine announced that Jerry Rape had hit The Big One. The bingo machine indicated a jackpot of $459,000, then $918,000, and finally settled on a 'payout multiplier' of $1,377,000, according to the gambler's lawsuit.

The casino took Rape's payout ticket and made him wait for about 24 hours before saying no dice. He wasn't getting the monster payout. The machine, he was told by the tribe's casino, had 'malfunctioned.' (PDF)

It gets worse

The gambler sued the casino in the tribal court of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. But the suit was dismissed. The court declared that sovereign immunity prevailed—that the tribe was an independent nation and immune from being sued.

'They said they were immune to any kind of fraud that I made in the complaint,' the gambler's attorney, Matt Abbott, told Ars in a telephone interview. 'They said rules don't apply to them, [and] 'have a nice day.'

Casino In Jackpot Nv

Unable to lodge a claim in tribal court, Rape rolled the dice with Alabama's state courts and sued the tribe there. On Friday, seven years after Rape thought he had hit the jackpot, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that Rape could not sue the tribe in state court—the proper venue was tribal court. That's because the Poarch Band of Creek Indians is a nation of itself, and that's where disputes occurring on that land should be litigated, the court found.

The Alabama high court noted that it found itself in a 'Catch-22' of sorts. It said it couldn't decide the dispute even if the tribe wasn't entitled to sovereign immunity.

'The activity out of which Rape's claim arose, however, was gambling. If it occurred on land within the regulatory and adjudicative jurisdiction of the State of Alabama, that activity was illegal. Specifically, that land is located in Elmore County and, therefore, is not located in one of the counties in Alabama where even the game commonly and traditionally known as bingo is permitted,' the court ruled. (PDF)

It is well established that this Court will not aid a plaintiff seeking to recover under an illegal contract but, instead, will simply leave the parties where it finds them.

This is the third time we've seen a gambler hit an enormous jackpot only to be told that it won't be paid because the jackpot was a result of an electronic 'malfunction.'

Meanwhile, the Alabama gambler's attorney, Abbott, told Ars that his client's legal avenues have now been exhausted. 'It's over,' he said.