Casino news source: ABC 7 - http://abclocal.go.com
Who's To Blame For Casino Controversy?
Feb. 16 - KGO - There are allegations of cheating in a north coast casino controversy. At stake is nearly $100,000 dollars in winnings.
The dispute centers around the payouts at the Sho-ka-wah Casino in Hopland. It's a 40,000 square foot facility, located about a 100 miles north of San Francisco, in Mendocino County, and the one thing we know for sure is that both sides can't be right.
This should be a celebration. Ann Ramsey won a $10,000 dollar cash prize from the Sho-ka-wah Casino in Hopland this past summer. So did Ray, but he isn't smiling.
Ray: "Yeah, I won. I was the only one to get paid."
The casino, which belongs to the Hopland band of Pomo Indians, says it stopped paying because it couldn't believe so many people won. Not only did Ray and Ann win at the same game this summer, but so did Ann's husband, Bill, and Ray's wife, Leonora. Bill Crowe won too, along with his girlfriend Rita, who has since died. Derek Abella is a member of the Hopland Tribe and also won -- as did at least two other individuals.
Ann Ramsey: "Sure odds were against it, but odds are beaten everyday, everyday."
The winners beat the odds playing the scratch off game. But instead of receiving a cash prize, they all got letters saying laboratory tests conducted on the winning cards show their cards were "chemically treated" and therefore "null and void" and "not eligible for prize redemption."
Derek Abella: "They're making us feel like we're cheaters and liars and it just makes me feel hurt."
Ray received a similar letter -- along with a demand to return his $10,000 dollar prize.
The scratch off contest is part of the casino's 10th anniversary promotion -- a promotion that has had other problems. Albert and Susanne Costa won a cruise to Mexico in a 10th anniversary raffle at Sho-ka-wah in July. Susanne was diagnosed with cervical cancer just more than a month before the scheduled cruise.
Susanne Costa: "I just knew that I had to get better soon, so I could get back to work, and I could get back into the normal things, and look forward to the trip."
They called the travel agent involved with the promotion to postpone the trip until after she recovered from surgery, but were told they would have to pay an $800 dollar penalty.
7 on Your Side called the casino and the travel agent, and the change fee was dropped and the Costas were able to take their cruise. But no quick resolution is in sight for the scratch off winners.
Bill Ramsey: "What kind of disturbed me is I've been an honest man all my life. And for them to think I cheated, lied, done things of that sort, I think the only persons who cheated, lied or whatever is the person that put this out."
Bill and his wife both took a lie detector test at the casino's request and both passed. Other winners who showed up to take the test were then told the test would be rescheduled. So far it hasn't been.
Sho-ka-wah Casino says it has and will always pay off any contest winners that have legitimately won prizes. It declined a request for an on camera interview, but the tribal chair did issue a written statement saying the odds of winning the $10,000 dollar prize were 1.9 million to one. She said tests conducted by two independent laboratories concluded that there had been tampering.
Bill Crowe: "They think we cheated. How the heck can you cheat? You've seen the scratchers -- there's no way I can figure to cheat on them."
The tribe declined to name the labs that conducted the testing or to provide us copies of the test results, but the case is attracting a lot of attention. The state attorney general's office has launched a fraud investigation, and Congressman Mike Thompson has asked the National Indian Gaming Commission to look into it. The tribe's own gaming commission could have final say on the matter under a compact signed by the tribe with the state in 1999. Under the compact, there is no right to an appeal. The commission has not returned our calls. |
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