Third Circuit judge rules MGM Resorts is not liable for gambling addict’s losses
A Third Circuit court has ruled that a gambling addict who blames his US$24 million online casino losses on operator MGM Resorts can’t sue the company.
Sam A. Antar’s 2022 lawsuit against MGM Resorts claimed that the operator and its subsidiaries were guilty of negligence and violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act because casino VIP managers messaged him regularly and sent him gambling rewards.
A federal judge dismissed that case, but Antar appealed, and on Monday, Senior US Circuit Judge Jane Richards Roth ruled that courts in New Jersey and around the US have uniformly rejected the principle of putting a duty of care towards compulsive gamblers on casinos, and that New Jersey casinos had broad protections under the New Jersey Casino Control Act.
Antar’s attorney, Matthew Litt, had argued at a hearing in December that the VIP hosts had acted like salespeople and that they were aware of his client’s gambling addiction, saying, “It’s not passive, it’s active. It’s not that they fail to do something. It’s that they use their product in a way they knew to be dangerous, and the plaintiff was harmed.”
The Third Circuit panel disagreed, noting that Antar had failed to prove that MGM had acted unlawfully or that it had a duty of care to gambling addicts.
Dig deeper
Charlotte Capewell brings her passion for storytelling and expertise in writing, researching, and the gambling industry to every article she writes. Her specialties include the US gambling industry, regulator legislation, igaming, and more.
