The fun of visiting a casino lies in the potential win. We all have our favorite games and hope to be a big winner by hitting a jackpot or earning the perfect hand. Casinos are filled with plenty of win potential and sometimes, even huge seven figure wins can be earned. Imagine winning a huge jackpot only to find that casino won’t pay up? That is exactly what happened to one big winner at the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Casino Refuses the Win
Tamara Bean was visiting the Ameristar Casino recently when she decided to play a penny slot machine. After playing for a while, she won a jackpot of $1,733. She was denied the winnings due to begin banned from the Ameristar. In the past, Bean was ejected from the casino due to having marijuana in her possession.
When she was kicked out, Bean was added to the banned list of the brand. The banning took place a long time ago, in 2002 to be exact. Since that time, she has been back several times and has never been prevented from gambling or playing on the casino floor. Because of her consistent gaming, the casino even issued Bean a rewards card just a few months ago.
The situation gets a little tricky because the player was banned when she had the last name of Sheffield. She became a Bean when she got married, so technically, the casino was not aware that she was the Tamara Sheffield who had been banned from the property in the past.
The casino continued to take money from Bean because they did not compare the accounts of Tamara Sheffield and Tamara Bean to see if it was the same person. It was not until she tried to collect the slot win that she was found to be the same Tamara who was on the banned list.
Proper Monitoring
It is unclear as to if Bean will be able to fight the jackpot claim. While the casino is in the right about denying the win, they have been letting her play for years without removing her from the venue. The situation is one that brings to question the ability of a casino to properly monitor who is on the gaming floor.
Some casinos choose to have photos of those who are banned to help in keeping players off the casino floor. This seems to be the best way in order to ensure players who are not to be on the gaming floor are kept at bay.
For those who are able to get on the gaming floor while on the banned list, claiming a win is going to be tricky. The player will not be able to obtain the prize once visiting a cashier cage as the venue will most likely pull up a social security number, which will reveal the ban.
It will be interesting to see if the venue decides to put additional measures in place in order to avoid a situation like this in the future.
