Caesars Online Casino and partner Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino are being sued by The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) over their new gambling promotion. The deal is that Caesars will provide a “$2500 deposit match”, but PHAI is claiming that this is misleading due to the small print requiring the player to spend $375,000 in seven days to qualify or even acquire their winnings.
The advertisement itself doesn’t feature any small print, requiring prospective players to hunt down the terms and conditions themselves. When looking at the several dozen bullet points, at no point does Caesars mention what the “minimum amount” required actually is.
PHAI is suing in Pennsylvania, claiming that Caesars has “effectively rewritten the laws” of the area. PHAI’s main issue, outside of the lack of transparency in the campaign, is that players would need to spend a minimum of $375,000 to just withdraw any winnings from the deal.
PHAI questions Caesars new deal
Speaking in the press release, Mark Gottlieb, Executive Director of PHAI, said:
“We know the gambling industry, with the assistance of the American Gaming Association (AGA) and the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS), is aggressively attempting to push the legalization of online casino gambling across the United States.
“Thus far, the seven states with online casino gambling seem ill-prepared or unwilling to regulate the wild tactics of the industry. This promotion, engineered by Caesars, is among the most egregious we have seen to date.”
America is currently dealing with an explosion in gambling use across the country. Even in states where online gambling isn’t available, reports have come out that show billions being sent overseas to offshore platform operators.
Dr. Harry Levant, Director of Gambling Policy at PHAI, added:
“It is unconscionable for a gambling company to knowingly require people to gamble excessively and put their mental health at risk as a condition to cash out their winnings.
“More importantly, nothing in Pennsylvania’s gambling rules or laws permits a casino to refuse payment unless and until customers begin gambling to excess. This is dangerous to Caesar’s customers, immoral, and just plain wrong.”
ReadWrite has reached out to Caesars for comment.
