Online casinos are rigged! This is the contention of Sam Antar, a self-described gambling addict who lost millions at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City and on the BetMGM online gambling platform.
Since online poker and casino games have been a reality, players have been blaming losses on a rigged system. They simply can’t believe that they could lose more than they win.
Sam Antar felt that MGM was not only taking advantage of his gambling addiction, but he believed the company purposely disconnected him from the games online when he was winning and took money from his account. So, he decided to sue them.
Who is Sam Antar?
By his own account, Sam Antar is a family man, a regular middle-aged guy with a “gambling addiction disorder.” He lives in New York, but he frequently traveled to New Jersey to play at the Borgata in Atlantic City and online via the BetMGM online casino platform available to people in New Jersey.
Antar is also a convicted felon. He stole $225K in an investment scheme, for which a court found him guilty in 2013. He served 21 months in prison for that crime. Again in 2019, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and New Jersey prosecutors charged Antar of defrauding friends and family in a different investment scheme. He pleaded guilty to second-degree theft in that one.
According to him, he did those crimes to get money to pay for his gambling. It all fueled his gambling addiction.
Unrelated to gambling addictions, though, were crimes by close family members. His father was a gambler as well; another family member called Allen Antar the “OJ Simpson of securities fraud” because he won the criminal case but lost a civil case to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sam Antar’s uncle was the owner of the Crazy Eddie electronics store chain, from which he stole more than $74M decades ago. He went to prison for racketeering.
https://twitter.com/SamAntar/status/1576265343332401152?s=20&t=HH9JKtguh57TV0Q_mvjfPg
Gambled Away Millions
Somehow, Sam Antar found access to nearly $30M. He used that to gamble online and at the Borgata in Atlantic City.
Antar knew he had a problem, so he self-excluded from MGM prior to 2018. But before 2018 was over, he had removed himself from that list. In 2019 and into 2020, he played online and live…a lot. During a nine-month period in 2019, he gambled away $24M. And over another 16 days in 2020, he lost $5M.
While he claims that BetMGM knew he had a gambling problem but continued encouraging him to play, Antar alleges much more. He claims that when playing online slots of live dealer blackjack, the system disconnected him, sometimes several times per hour. He says that most of the disconnection issues happened when he was winning a blackjack hand. In addition, he said that he sometimes won big hands and then found that his online casino account balance had been reduced to zero during a site malfunction.
Further, Antar said that he was in constant contact with customer support representatives at BetMGM Online, but they could never figure out the problem. Meanwhile, they tried to placate him with bonuses to get him to play more. He said they told him he needed to deposit more money in order to help them resolve the connection issues. Antar even sent emails to top BetMGM executives.
For these alleged wrongdoings, Antar wants to be compensated for the millions he lost. His lawsuit in a New Jersey federal court puts Borgata, B Online Casino, BetMGM, MGM Resorts, Entain, and miscellaneous people and corporations to be named as the suit moves forward through discovery.
Antar put together ten allegations of wrongdoing in his lawsuit. He alleges fraud, breach of contract, gross negligence, conversion, unjust enrichment, civil conspiracy, and a breach of good faith and fair dealing. Further, he claims the companies violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
The bottom line is simple. Antar believes the online casino is rigged against him. In fact, the entire company stole his millions of dollars.
Let’s see what the courts think.
