Our take: Suit over denied casino winnings a waste of time
Unless it is extolling the cuteness of kittens, or the beauty of an August sunrise over the the Gulf Islands, chances are pretty good a lot of people are going to disagree with an editorial, and often times disagree strongly.
But we’re willing to bet this one is closer to sunshine and kittens than most.
A lawsuit by problem gamblers about a pair of denied casino jackpots should be tossed out of court before the ink on the writ is dry.
Two gamblers, including Duncan’s Michael Lee, are suing the B.C. Lottery Corporation for being denied a combined $77,000 in winnings — in Lee’s case, $42,000 from a slot machine in Duncan. The reason for the denial was simple: each man was banned from BCLC casinos at their own request.
Lee and Hamidreza Haghdust were both enrolled in the BCLC’s voluntary self-exclusion program, designed to bar gambling addicts from casinos, essentially for their own good.
Each snuck in, won jackpots and were rejected when they tried to cash in, and the company realized who they were.
They argue the BCLC was at fault for not keeping them out of the casinos.
What’s next? Escaped convicts arguing they aren’t guilty of any crimes committed while on the lam because it was the community’s fault for letting them escape jail? Corrupt politicians washing their hands of graft because it was the voters’ fault they were in office in the first place?
It would be funny if our court system wasn’t so clogged that real criminals are walking free because judges are unable to hear their cases in a fair amount of time.
Can the public sue the plaintiffs for wasting our court system’s precious time?
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