Sunday, November 06, 2005

A 78 year old woman, taken into custody by casino security after picking up a nickel left by another gambler, was awarded $600,000 in punitive damages on appeal (reduced from $875,000). The appeal court's ruling (PDF file) is an interesting read, and a reminder that one is not necessarily better off playing in the nice, legal brick-and-mortar casinos, given the disregard for civil liberties many of them have been known to show (and are finally beginning to pay for in court). I may have anxiety about Casino On Net actually paying me, but at least they are extremely unlikely to detain me against my will (and I'd like to think the La Mesa Police Department would be on my side, should they try--but I have no doubt on which side the Las Vegas authorities would come down if I had a problem in one of their city's fine gambling parlours).

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