Appeals court hits casino with reversed ruling: Pay up
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A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed a previous ruling that dismissed a lawsuit against a Louisiana casino that had a high roller arrested before paying the $30,000 he won using chips he purchased.
Kyle Pikaluk is a skilled blackjack player considered to be an “advantage player,” utilizing legitimate, legal techniques to gain an edge while playing casino games such as blackjack.
Because the house always has to win, so they say, Caesars Entertainment Corp. in 2016 permanently banned him from all its properties, sending him a letter he claims he did not receive, according to documents in Kyle D. Pikaluk v. Horseshoe Entertainment LP, et al., filed in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
A year later, Mr. Pikaluk headed over to the Caesars’ Horseshoe Hotel & Casino in Bossier City, Louisiana, where he won over $30,000. When he went to cash in, the casino had him arrested, instead of cashing in his chips.
Mr. Pikaluk then sued over violations of his constitutional rights. A district court in Louisiana granted the casino a summary judgment on all counts, using case law of people conducting illegal activities on-site as the basis for parts of its decisions.
The appeals court contended in over 14 pages of legalese that it disagreed with most of the district court’s decision, citing “general fact disputes” and that Mr. Pikaluk was not guilty of anything illegal, among other assertions. It, therefore, remanded the case back to the lower court.
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