The story dates back to September 2022, when a man from New York, Sam Antar, filed a court case against Atlantic City’s three casinos – the Borgata Casino, its parent company, the MGM Resort, and the latter’s online partner Entain.
The plaintiff accused the resorts of encouraging his gambling addiction and of inducing him to play more.
The Ruling
The ruling ended on the 31st of January 2024, when the judge responsible for this case, Judge Madeline Cox, ruled out the accusations put forth. The court sentence concluded that the legislature of New Jersey does not impose on the casino operators to exclude or ban compulsive gamblers from playing further. Therefore, the accusation stands no ground.
Having said that, New Jersey does have a self-exclusion program for those who have gambling issues. Supposedly, the law requests the casino operators to prohibit such self-excluded gamblers from placing any further bets.
Plaintiff Sam Antar also has a history of compulsive gambling claims as well as a prison sentence dating back to 2013 for fraudulent activities. Also, Antar had owned homes in Long Branch, New York, and New Jersey, and in total, has reportedly gambled around $30 Million, placing over 100,000 Bets.
Mimicking other cases
This is not the first court case of its type. In 2008, there was a similar case also in Atlantic City, where gambler Arelia Taveras claimed that the casino was responsible for not stopping her from gambling, and in consequence, lost $1 Million dollars.