http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,86154,00.html
I’ll ask again, what the fuck is wrong with people? Can no one take responsibility for their actions?
Obesity, tobacco, now gambling, what’s next?
Alcohol.
Run Budweiser run!
Of course, anything that would stop Budweiser from producing (ahem) beer might not be so bad… 
That said, I agree with you, World Eater. With the minor exception of tobacco: the way I feel about it, if the tobacco companies went out of their way to claim that smoking either didn’t cause health problems, or just didn’t do it very much, then they deserve to lose all of their money. I mean, it wasn’t like they were paragons of truth.
I’m glad others called their bluff.
Yes, you’re correct with the tobacco thing.
I’m a computer programmer, I had interviews once with a maker of “gaming machines”.
I kind of got caught up in the heat of the moment, and into the spirit of things, I pitched several ideas to them about how to maximise revenue*. Some of these ideas were clearly unethical (but I was thinking about my job-prospects).
They said to each idea, “Yeah, been there, done that.”
These people know who their punters are, they design their machines and environments to bleed the punters dry, the weaker, the better.
Just so you know.
*For instance I suggested that with appropriate heuristics they could recognise specific punters by their “button-pushing-behaviour-fingerprint”, once identified, they could be lead them by the nose until they have surrendered “their” maximal revenue.
While I don’t doubt that theres some shady things the casinos do, they are not forcing the people to the slot machines at gunpoint.
A fact that seems to fall short upon a few money grubbing people and or lawyers.
Suing the casino because they let you come and gamble and you lost a lot of money = frivolous.
Suing the casino because you’d previously been banned for being a gambling addict when they lured you back in by offering to comp you rooms and meals = not nearly as frivolous.
I hadn’t seen any proof in the article that the casino “lured” the dude back after banning him. For all we know they could have just sent out junk mail to everyone in the area, without bothering to cross-check their list of banned people. (Assuming they even have the banned people’s addresses on file. The article did not go into detail about how addict-banning is handled.)
Anyway, I think this:
Is a good idea.
I don’t know casino security, but does this mean that the casino has to recognize every face and/or name of anyone who enters the casino in case they might be on a prohibited list? What if you are on a prohibited list and you just use cash?
As for the casino in question, if they are giving comps, as the article states, to a banned member, then there might be some liability. I’m thinking of something along the lines of a bartender who continues to serve someone who is already falling down drunk. Comps, to the best of my knowledge, are not mass mailings. They are targeted to big spenders.
Yeah I was wondering about the logistics of the whole thing myself.
I always thought if you had an “illness” like gambling addiction it is your responsibility to cure yourself of it.
If my leg turns septic but I don’t go to see a doctor because I like the taste of pus, would I be entitled to sue if I get septacemia?
Sounds like a plan Ben.
Have any drunk drivers sued Budweiser yet?
Just put a sign outside of the casino that says, “WARNING: CONTAINS GAMBLING”. That oughtta solve any liability issues…
this post has been Graped by the Grapist!
5… 4… 3…
I remember some article (sorry, can’t remember the source) that said that Vegas casinos have been using face recognition since '97 or '98. Ok, so the original reason was to catch chronic cheaters, but maybe they’ll spin it so gambling addicts could volunteer a picture and agree to be thrown out.
The suit will probably come down to how he was “lured”. If it was a mass mailing to area residents (IMHO unlikely if the offer was more than just a comped meal), then they weren’t trying to get Mr. Williams. If they had failed to remove him from their mailing lists, he might be able to get some compensation.
Damn, I hate it when I end up thinking about both sides; it takes all the rightous indignation out of me.
Are you from Liverpool by any chance?
It is, and it’s no one else’s fault.
This just makes me want to spit.
"*I’m suing them because the bastards did what I wanted them to do!!! They should have looked out for me!!! I’m helpless and weak! *
Fer chrissakes, GROW A SPINE!!!
While I’m a staunch advocate of personal responsibility, there are some practices which make me question the ethics and legality of some gambling organizations.
Some electronic slot machines are set up to display reel combinations that make the machine appear ready to pay off. As in:
BAR - BAR - $$$
Investigation showed that manufacturers had intentionally programmed machines to display these combinations hundreds of times more often than they would normally appear in any random mechanical system.
While anybody who operates a non-mechanical gambling device should be well aware of how there is no longer any expectation of true random aspect to the machine’s behavior, it still strikes me as misleading. Slot machines have been historically random in their operation and to program the incidence of near-payoff appearing combinations is misleading at least and smacks of deception with intent to defraud.
Another case that is close to home is the nearby Bay 101 card club in San Jose. They have Vietnamese ballroom dancing nights, free Vietnamese food buffets and feature games popular with Asians, like Pai Gow. They do not have Hispanic, Black or any other sort of ‘draw’ events to encourage other ethnic groups to attend.
Since the opening of the card club, there has been a dramatic jump in the Vietnamese community’s divorce rate, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcy and (to a lesser extent) spousal violence and suicide. Much of this can be traced directly back to gambling addiction promoted by the card club. No other local card club goes to such lengths to lure in Vietnamese gamblers.
While this is far less of a clear cut case, it is EXTREMELY PREDATORY in nature. It also smacks of a strange type of discrimination. They provide highly selective inducements to a specific portion of the population while ignoring other (even larger) demographic groups. As a city council member, I would find this sort of business methodology to be a blight upon the community. Because of the enormous ‘revenues’ that the card club produces, officials turn a blind eye to this predation. Blatant and shameless targeting of prey in such a fashion is damn well revolting and should be roundly condemned by community leaders.
Additional to Zensters comments: In the UK, the “gaming machines” you might see in a bar or club with payouts less than £50 are absolutely 100% NOT random. Every spin of the wheels is calculated before hand. (This is not true for higher payout machines.)
Lobsang, no I’m not from Liverpool, you gorra a problem with tha’, la’? My mother is though, does that help?
Who can I sue when I’ve been graped?