Harrahs forced to honor coupons

[mary]

Coupon Misprints Could Cost Casino Millions

POSTED: 12:22 pm PST November 20, 2005

JOLIET, Ill. -- A misprint may end up costing an Illinois casino millions of dollars.

Harrah's Joliet Casino said there was a mistake in about 11,000 coupons mailed to customers last week. Instead of being worth $15 or $20 apiece, each had a face value of $525 in cash. The company blames the error on a third-party vendor.

Dozens of gamblers crowded Harrah's customer service desk on Friday, and got angry when the casino refused to redeem the coupons. Customers were encouraged to trade the coupons for reward points. Some did, but others decided to keep their slips of paper.

The Illinois Gaming Board ruled that Harrah's must honor the coupons. All told, the company could be liable for as much as $5.8 million.

[Casinomeister]

The full article is here:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/...harrahs20.html

Casino operators who boast about being in line with the land based operations should read this article carefully. Send out the wrong coupon - you're liable.

[jetset]

I think this has application in the online context, too - if an operator screws up it is not the players' responsibility and the offer must be honoured.

It reminds one of the CON screwup some years back where they ate the loss and honoured their promo despite having made an error. That's what honourable online casinos should do, and it's in stark contrast to the more recent behaviour of Joyland in trying to get out of a hole it dug for itself imo.

There's an intriguing issue ongoing in the Malta jurisdiction at present, too where a player is being denied a substantial payout because the operator made a mistake. The decision by the Malta authorities will be watched closely on this one.

Hearsay has it that the operator:

1) First tried to blame the software until a forensic examination showed that not to be at fault.

2) Refused to supply the player with gaming logs

3) Made the player a contemptuous offer of less than 1 percent of the disputed payout...and then unilaterally deposited it in his account despite it being rejected.

4) There are apparently allegations that the T&C's were retroactively tampered with

5) There are allegations that the operator then tried to evade responsibility by claiming an error at the casino was exploited by the player because he won above the normal ratio.

If all this is true, then under these circumstances, it seems to me that the player could make a strong case for unfair treatment when, as appears to have happened in this case his winnings were disqualified.

[Casinomeister]

Hearsay has it that the operator:

1) First tried to blame the software until a forensic examination showed that not to be at fault.

2) Refused to supply the player with gaming logs

3) Made the player a contemptuous offer of less than 1 percent of the disputed payout...and then unilaterally deposited it in his account despite it being rejected.

4) There are apparently allegations that the T&C's were retroactively tampered with

5) There are allegations that the operator then tried to evade responsibility by claiming an error at the casino was exploited by the player because he won above the normal ratio.

You'd think that these casinos would have an insurance policy that covers these sorts of things.

[amandajm]

I guess Harrah's have a term somewhere stating they can do what they like, when they like.

It would be nice if this served as a template for how online casinos etc have to run their operations and swallow their own errors, rather than pass it on to the punter.

Quite a thing though really. Reminds me of the palpable error rule.

(the exact details I do not recall - it went something like) William Hill offered a price of 10/1 once on the website rather than the 1/10 offered in the highstreet bookies. Online punters took the price, but Bill Hill swung out of paying due to palpable error.

[pokeraddict]

Sporting Bet did this to me just 2 weeks ago. I bet a half time line and it won but they had the wrong side favored and I am told all bets were voided (of course without notifying me so I could rebet and i have no idea when they voided it). Even if my bet had been placed on the correct line of what they claim it still would have won. They refused to pay me my money anyway, first ignoring 4 emails, the having to go to live chat to get an answer even though I get the idea if it had lost they would have happily taken it.

If only there was a code that required places to honor their words......

[jetset]

That really is piss-poor behaviour for a company of Sp;ortingbet's stature imo. Perhaps the new control arrangements in the UK will put an end to that sort of dishonesty, at least for those companies that license there.