Australia: Court orders casino to pay out Jackpot

Around a month ago, a court in Australia had ordered the casino operator Star Entertainment to pay out an earned Jackpot. The casino had previously refused to pay out the jackpot to the disabled player. But why did not the Star Casino pay out the Jackpot-winning directly, but let it escalate to a legal dispute?

A few weeks ago, we had reported that an Australian authority had ordered the Crown Resorts to pay a fine in the millions. At the end of August an Australian Court heard the case which was about whether the famous Star Casino was entitled to refuse paying out the jackpot winning. The court decided in its judgement that there was no reason for the casino not to pay out the jackpot. Thus, the court ordered the casino to pay out the jackpot which had been won a long while back.

Casino refuses to pay out jackpot to player with a physical disability

The player David Joe who is suing the casino had won the jackpot amounting to 285,000 AUD (around 187.000 Euro) way back in October 2019 in the Star Casino of Sydney. The casino management refused to pay out the winning prize money. The reason: The VIP customer David Joe suffers from a neurological disability and thus had requested the casino to allow him to be accompanied by another person who would help him to use the slot machines. The Star Casino had accepted his request.

The problem: The person accompanying the VIP-customer was deemed to be “an undesirable person” by the casino. The casino therefore argued that the actual winner was the accompanying person. Since this person should not have been allowed to enter the casino, the winning was thus not lawful. In 2016 the person who was accompanying the customer himself had asked to be banned from gambling .

The court however did not follow this same line of argument. On the contrary: The court blamed the casino that it had given “an undesirable person” access to the gambling machines and had even allowed him to enter the casino without any problems. The suing player himself could prove in court that he did not know that the person accompanying him was banned from gambling. In Summer of last year we had reported about a money laundering case in the Crown Casino Melbourne where millions were laundered.

Jackpot-winning must be paid out

Nearly three years have gone by since David Joe had cracked the Jackpot in the Star Casino. The court has now ordered the casino to pay out the winnings without any further delays. At the end of the day Joe had won the jackpot in a legal way, with the help of a person who had accompanied him because of his disability. In December of last year we had reported about another shocking case from Australia, in which a woman had stolen 940,000 AUD and had then gambled the money in the Social Casino.

Conclusion

The physically disabled jackpot winner has shown resilience and after nearly three years of him winning the jackpot he managed to win the court case. Now the gambling group Star Entertainment must pay out the winning prize which amounts to nearly 200,000 Euro. The casino had till now tried with all its might to shirk its responsibility of paying out the winning jackpot to the lucky winner.

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/sydney-opera-house-sydney-354375/