A Sydney court has ruled that The Star Entertainment cannot retain an AU$285,000 jackpot won with help from a suspended gambler and has to pay out the money.
Late last week, the District Court found that the casino operator unlawfully refused to hand over a jackpot that the casino patron won on October 25th, 2019, and awarded David Joe almost AU$320,000, including interest.
At the time when he hit the jackpot, the player, who is a Platinum Vantage VIP member of the Australian casino company and suffers from motor neurone disease, asked a friend of his – Lois Lie – to help him operate the pokies in the casino. Judge Robert Montgomery wrote in his ruling that, in the context of their playing machines for a few hours, Mr Joe was genuinely deprived of the ability to operate the poker machines himself for enjoyment because of his significant disability.
On the day when the jackpot was won, Mr Joe and his friend put AU$10 into the Year of the Tiger pokie machine and hit the jackpot, along with some other prizes. According to the casino patron’s claims, The Star had previously agreed he could use a friend’s help in operating the pokies but the casino eventually refused to pay out his winnings, saying Mr Lie had voluntarily excluded himself from gambling in October 2016, therefore he was suspended from premises and was not entitled to any potential winnings.
All Poker Machine Gambling Was Done on Behalf and at the Risk of the Casino Patron, Judge Finds
As mentioned above, Judge Montgomery found that it was Mr Joe who won the jackpot, not Mr Lie, so the money payment could not be withheld. Therefore, the judge ordered The Star Entertainment to hand the AU$285,000 jackpot over, plus interest of almost AU$35,000. The casino operator would also have to pay the legal costs made by Mr Joe as a result of the lawsuit.
The judge further noted that The Star’s ultimate payment of the money to the Responsible Gaming Fund and not to the casino patron was based on an unjustified assumption it could keep the money and not hand it over to the jackpot winner.
According to the court’s ruling, it was David Joe who took the entire economic risk by telling his friend which buttons to press and providing all the money spent back then. Judge Montgomery explained that the entire amount of money placed as wagers during the operation of the poker machines by Mr Lie was on behalf of Mr Joe, whose card was inserted in the machine while he watched the game and gave Mr Lie directions. In addition, it turned out that the casino patron was not aware of the fact that his friend was suspended from the venue because he had previously chosen to self-exclude himself for a period of six months from gambling.
In his turn, Mr Lie informed the court that, at the time when he played the poker machines on behalf of his friend, he assumed the self-exclusion order had been repealed since he had not been prevented from entering the casino premises and was able to gamble.
- Author
Olivia Cole
