It’s bright and sunny in the Ozarks this morning; crisp as they say. I had to drive a little north and east of here yesterday, out past Forsyth, Missouri. I caught the first glimpse of color change in the leaves as I drove. As I walked this morning, I spied a couple of white oaks on which the leaves were starting to turn bright orange. This was as the sun was still rising and I noticed that the leaves that were turning were all on the sides of the trees that were facing east, toward the rising sun. I never noticed that before.
The other night someone told me that they thought the word “autumn” sounds pretentious and that we should all just say “fall”. I like the word autumn and if someone thinks it sounds pretentious, I like it even better.
The Red Sox were dominant last night. Beckett is scary. I was talking to a buddy last week and I said that Beckett should just throw fast balls, that the only way he would get in trouble was by hanging a curve. I gotta retract that one, he was buckling knees with the curve last night.
I’m weary of the constant politicizing and finger pointing that our media, politicians and celebrities seem to think is required any time anything happens. Regarding the California fires, in the past 24 hours I have heard Harry Reid say the cause was global warming, Barbara Boxer and the Lt. Governor say that the situation is worsened because of the Iraq war, Jamie Lee Curtis say the cause is environmental disregard, and Fox News speculating the possibility of terrorist arson. All the while, the fire is still burning. If there is a single “cause”, if there is somebody who is to “blame”, I think that, as a nation, we are grown up enough to face it. Let’s concentrate on putting out the fires first. It is really condescending and insulting and, for the life of me, I don’t know why the consuming public continues to accept it.
Here is an interesting story from ABC. Last year, Gary Hoffman was playing nickel slots at the Sandia Resort and Casino on an Indian reservation in New Mexico. He hit a jackpot that said he won $1.6 million. The casino said that the slot machine had a malfunction and refused to pay. They did pay him $385.
Now, the casino says that the machine has a maximum pay out of $2,500, that the machine was clearly marked to reflect that. So, the casino is making the case that this is a contract law matter. Evidently, you are supposed to read the machine and that is a contract.
Regardless, a jury may never get chance to hear Hoffman’s case. Native American tribes, as independent nations, have their own court systems and can be sued in state courts only under limited circumstances. New Mexico law generally does not allow tribes to be sued in a state court over a contract dispute.
So, if it’s a contract dispute; no jury. See, that’s one of the questions that would be interesting to put to a jury. Was there a contract? There is all kinds of crap on the outside of a slot machine that has nothing to do with contracts. You could also make a case that most of the stuff on the outside of a slot machine is enticement and meant to distract the player from any contractual language.
The casino’s lawyer, Paul Bardacke, had this to say.
“If he had gone into a bank and deposited $1,000 and got back a deposit slip that said a million dollars, he doesn’t get to keep the balance. It doesn’t work that way.”
That is rubbish. This is really what got me going here. If this guy, Bardacke, said something this silly in front of a jury, he could easily be exposed.
When you walk up to the tellers window, or night deposit box, there is nothing that says; “Maximum pay out $2,500″. Nor are there any pictures of scantily clad women or anything that says WIN! WIN! WIN!!!. And, if the bank made such a mistake, you wouldn’t have bells, sirens, flashing lights and JACKPOT!!! when you got the deposit receipt.
The casino made the mistake. I’m not really saying that they need to pay out the full $1.6 mil but, it is bogus that the case can be kept from a jury. Also, I can buy into the idea that the tribe should have their own court system. This is an area of concern though because, the casino is designed to entice patrons from outside of the tribe. The whole thing boils down to the fact that the reservation is part of a sovereign nation. If they are truly sovereign, they can allow gambling, whatever they want.
This is really a situation where the casino should just give the guy his payday. It’s good P.R. when you admit a mistake and take it on the chin. If enough of this stuff happens and people get upset about it, then it becomes more than a P.R. matter. It becomes a test of sovereignty.
That may sound silly but it did take an act of congress to determine that the sovereignty extended to casino gambling and that it falls under F.B.I. jurisdiction. So, it is “allowed” sovereignty.
The fact is that the Sandia Casino gives the appearance of someone welshing on a bet. They can say that there was a computer glitch and there was a contract blah… blah.. blah…
They welshed. They screwed up and they welshed.
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