SugarHouse Casino is arguably the hottest Philadelphia-based gambling destination thanks to its impressive gaming library packed with all sorts of thrilling slot machines, classic table games and much more. The venue is also one of the oldest Philly’s gambling facilities which continue to pose as a premier both nightlife and gaming location.
Thanks to its $164 million-worth expanding, the casino brought in all sorts of new amenities including bars, six new restaurants, a massive parking garage and much more. The casino is located near the Delaware River in Fishtown neighborhood. It is one of five independent gambling facilities which was awarded its gaming licensed by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006.
Granted a Gaming License in 2006
Despite the fact that many residents of the neighborhood were against the casino opening in this area due to damaged life quality, SugarHouse Casino opened its doors to the public on the 23rd of September, 2010. At the time, the Fishtown area residents decided to establish anti-casino organizations in the first place, the Philadelphia Neighborhood Alliance and the Casino Free Philadelphia.
However, the biggest Fishtown membership organization FACT with six hundred members has supported the SugarHouse Casino project. Hence, the casino’ successfully completed its developmental stage in 2010. Currently, it serves as home to more than three thousand games including tables and slot machines alongside a number of dining and retail outlets located at the casino complex. Moreover, back in 2018, SugarHouse Casino became the very first land-based gambling facility in the city to offer sportsbetting.
Two Gamblers Suing SugarCasino
Since its establishment, the casino has regularly made headlines and the most recent issue regards unshuffled poker decks two gamblers claim the casino used. In their statement, two gamblers said that the casino has used illegitimate, broken card shuffling machines at their table games which led them to lose over $250k.
According to this lawsuit, William Vespe and Anthony Mattia signed the lawsuit at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the lawsuit is also against the casino’s partner Rush Street Gaming. In the lawsuit, Mr. Vespe said he lost around $147k and Mr. Mattia stated he lost $103k between May 2017 and up to January 2018. During this period, both Vespe and Mattia played on multiple occasions.
In their statement, two gambles said that they saw several incidents of damaged or broken machines for automatic card shuffled as well as witnessed illegitimate card decks being added at the SugarHouse mini-baccarat, poker and blackjack tables. Further, they stated that these inconveniences significantly reduced their winning odds.
It should be noted that this is not the first time that SugarHouse has been facing these charges. The very first incident of this kind occurred on the 28th of May when one casino’s employee found sixteen cards in an automatic card shuffles that somebody had removed. Later on, investigators on the case found that the removed cards belonged to six decks used in blackjack games.
Following this incident, only one gambler out of eight gamblers who were playing with this short card decks won. Commenting on the most recent incident, the casino’s spokesperson Jack Horner stated in his most recent announcements that the integrity of all gaming operations at SugarHouse Casino is of the biggest importance. He also added that all individuals involved in the incidents had their job contracts terminated.
