Beware the Irresistible Siren Song of the Slots

Progressives catch a lot of crap, and rightfully so, for a lack of belief or support for personal agency and responsibility and a tendency to hold "society" responsible for people's choices. But paternalism isn't the only reason for misplaced blame. Sometimes losing a whole lot of money will do it.

From Courthouse News:

A candy wholesaler sued an Ameristar casino for $4 million, claiming it "enticed and enabled" a worker who embezzled the money and blew it on slot machines.

Colombo Candy & Tobacco Wholesale Co. dba Colombo Distribution sued Ameristar Casino Council Bluffs in Douglas County Court, Tulsa.

It claims its employee, Jane Doe, blew more than $3 million of the $4 million she embezzled at the Ameristar casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Courthouse News reports the employee has entered into a settlement with her employer admitting to the embezzlement and has a judgment against her for $4 million, which she doesn't have, because she blew it all at the casino. So they're arguing that the casino induced her to gamble by treating her like a VIP because she was giving them lots of money and therefore the casino should have to give the money back.

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Comments

[$park?]

Beware the Irresistible Siren Song of the Slots

Good advice regardless of the actual topic.

[LTC(ret) John]

I see what you did there. heh.

[NeonCat]

So should parents be able to sue the candy distributor if their kids get cavities? Or anyone who has diabetes?

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm annoyed that I can't find a youtube clip of Sandra Bullock saying slots over and over and pronouncing it sluts.

[generic Brand]

I just want to say sorry for pointing out the SF'd link on Suderman's BioShock review. If I hadn't mentioned how it didn't work, it would have still worked. Isn't that how Santa Claus stays alive?

[LTC(ret) John]

You realize that in pointing that out...you just slew Santa, you monster!

[generic Brand]

He was always dead... or alive. He exists in purgatory and his only day in the real world is Christmas Eve. Watch The Sixth Sense and it will all make sense. It was a Christmas movie, didn't you know?

[jesse.in.mb]

Explain this, I missed most of AM links except the discussion on rimming, but I see Bioshock related rage all over the place.

[Hugh Akston]

There was a post (not)linking to Suderman's review of BioShock Infinite. Until someone *casts glance at gB* pointed out that the links were broken. Then it disappeared down the memory hole along with all of my incisive critiques of Bioshock's many flaws.

[jesse.in.mb]

So instead of fixing the links they deleted the post? and gB is at fault for recognizing the original problem and pointing it out?

[generic Brand]

Squirrels

[generic Brand]

They don't like to be questioned

[darius404]

And what, pray tell, was the nature of these "incisive critiques"?

[Hugh Akston]

We'll never know now, thanks to gB!

[jesse.in.mb]

Are you just trying to move yourself down Epi's hate list by fluffing up gB's resume?

[generic Brand]

Let me mansplain this to you: Bioshock: Infinite is a video game and sequel to a well received game, Bioshock. Peter Suderman is a writer for Reason online magazine. Separately, the two are good; but combine them in some sort of review of the video game by Suderman, and they no longer work.

The excerpt of his review was posted on H&R, but when you clicked on the link to the full post it went to a 404 error. I pointed this out on the comments for the excerpt, and then the squirrels came, and the rest is not in the annals (don't get any ideas, jesse!) of history.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm gay and a history major, I know full well to keep my anal and annals separate.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's probably just a phase. I'm confident you'll grow out of it. Everyone experiments with history in college.

[$park?]

Yeah, but to major in it? I thought the rule was to never go full retard.

[jesse.in.mb]

Was a history major, finished that up 8 few years ago. Majors weren't listed on our diploma, everyone got a liberal arts degree. I'm not mathy enough for STEM, and business was for the dumb jocks.

[jesse.in.mb]

EDIT BUTTON!

finished that up 8 few years ago

[General Butt Naked]

That's what you get for majoring in history.

Not to mention, going to the same community college as Richard Nixon.

[Warty]

You're just jealous that the dumb jocks didn't give you the business.

[General Butt Naked]

Dumb jocks give each other the business, it's called "hazing".

Everyone knows that.

[jesse.in.mb]

You're just jealous that the dumb jocks didn't give you the business.

That is 100% factual.

$park?: It certainly didn't help, although the fact that I taught myself how to use a sewing machine to make pants for my sister's barbie doll at age 7 leads me to believe it was inevitable.

[$park?]

PANTS ON A HOT BLOND WITH HIPS!?!?!?! That's pretty gay.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Speaking of that...this is hilarious....I'm laughing so much, I'm close to losing bladder control...

[$park?]

Well I only took one semester and managed to escape with only some minor anal tearing. Are you sure it wasn't majoring in history what made you gay (NTTAWWT)?

[Cyrano]

Somebody need to show Colombo Candy the scene from Lost in America with Albert Brooks and Garry Marshall.

[Mainer2]

Because there is no Santy Clos.

[John]

So if this guy wins, can people sue the state for making the lottery too enticing?

[darius404]

Of course not. It would just mean that the lottery enticed the STATE, too. So they'll owe money to them as well.

[generic Brand]

The real question is if Jane Doe had been successful at the casino and doubled her money, would she have been liable for the $4 million embezzled or all $8 million?

[Brett L]

Fuck yeah. I'm totally getting in on the Powerball suit. (Although, I think I bought a couple tickets once when the payout was something like $110M cash after taxes, which made the 350M:1 odds palatable.)

[darius404]

See, if they hadn't given you the illusion of a chance of winning with those more favorable odds, you wouldn't have bought those tickets. The State has to keep the odds of winning asstronomically high to protect you from your own weakness.

[Mensan]

Odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 175M:1.

[The Late P Brooks]

it "enticed and enabled" a worker who embezzled the money and blew it on slot machines.

The real crime was the way it enticed him to not have effective internal controls on his fucking cash.

Tough shit, retard.

[The Late P Brooks]

If I hadn't mentioned how it didn't work, it would have still worked. Isn't that how Santa Claus stays alive?

Tinkerbell ain't lookin' too lively, neither.

[girlgenius]

Yeah, but all ol' Tink needs is a fair bit of handclapping to keep her in good form. Santa, on the other hand, has a much higher maintenance threshold.

[Warty]

Beware the Irresistible Siren Song of the Slots

Instead, listen to the irresistible siren song of the sloths.

[jesse.in.mb]

Oh god, toss that post in front of nicole next time you want to distract her from her point.

[Brett L]

The multiple of sloth is slothes.

[IceTrey]

Follow the link to the story. It's not so cut and dried. The casino never questioned where she got the money and set up special machines for her, etc..

[Death Rock and Skull]

Looks cut and dry to me. The casino doesn't have to do shit.

[IceTrey]

If you have the slightest suspicion that you are dealing with ill gotten gains and you go ahead with the transaction you are an accessory. It's called receiving stolen goods.

[Generic Stranger]

None of what you said points to the casino having even the slightest suspicion, though. They do that shit for all the high rollers.

[Scott S.]

Suderman had to close that tear in order to open the one for his latest Obamacare post, okay?

[Brett L]

You're not getting them back on topic, no matter what. Just go home and keep drinking. Or start, but you really should've already started on Friday.

[The Late P Brooks]

The casino never questioned where she got the money

We're all Agents of the State, now.

[Death Rock and Skull]

Just like bank tellers and computer repairmen. And doctors. And therapists. And bartenders. Basically everyone is a cop.

[carol]

I just finished a state and NCUA exam today. Trust me, if tellers were any more cop-like (or expected to be) they'd have to start shooting dogs. Just before the exam a board member asked if I would fill out an SAR if a member withdrew $5,000 in cash and told the teller that it was for purchasing ammo. Besides it being a politically motivated "gotcha" question, I replied that I don't answer hypothetical questions but that purchasing ammo, even $5,000 worth, isn't illegal. Apparently that was the wrong answer.

[John C. Randolph]

I think I'd respond with something along the lines of calling the cops and reporting the board member for musing out loud about guns and ammo and shit. Only terrrrrrists talk about that.

-jcr

[IceTrey]

Knowingly receiving stolen money is illegal.

[Generic Stranger]

Keyword: Knowingly.

[Anonymous Coward]

A candy wholesaler sued an Ameristar casino for $4 million, claiming it "enticed and enabled" a worker who embezzled the money and blew it on slot machines.

How many casino patrons manage to blow money on the slot machines that they DIDN'T embezzle?

[WomSom]

Dude totally knows how to smack it man.

http://www.AnonNow.tk

[John C. Randolph]

As I recall, some casino won a similar suit a few years back where some pinhead man-child who'd inherited millions of dollars had pissed it away at the tables, and sued the casino for enticing him with high-roller perks.

I'd love to be the juror who wrote the verdict on that one. "We the jury, find the plaintiff wholly worthless as a human being, a disgrace to his parents who left him the money he wasted, and an embarrassment to the human race. We award him precisely squat, and we award attorney's fees to the defendant."

-jcr