Slots player says she was cheated out of $100,000 jackpot. Now PA woman is suing
An online slots player from Pennsylvania said she was cheated out of a $100,000 jackpot and is suing the game’s manufacturer in New Jersey.
Lisa Piluso of Philadelphia is suing American Gaming Systems Inc. after “repeated, unsuccessful efforts to collect the $100,000” she said she won on Oct. 2, 2020, according to a news release from attorney Paul D’Amato.
She said she was told there was a “bug” in the game and didn’t actually win the jackpot prize.
Piluso played the company’s Capital Gains game on her cellphone using an online platform of Caesars Atlantic City.
“I’m an experienced online player and I was shocked when AGS officials – including the company president – told me they weren’t going to pay even when I showed them the screenshot that I made of the $100,000 jackpot,” she said, according to the Nov. 11 release. “They said I actually won about $300, but they then offered me $1,000, saying we were “nice people.”
Additionally, 13 others have filed the same complaint against AGS, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, arguing the company owes them more than they were told they’d receive, the Associated Press reported.
D’Amato told McClatchy News over the phone that most of the other complaints were filed before Piluso’s.
A spokesperson for AGS, Julia Boguslawski, said the company is “committed to the credibility and integrity of the regulatory process and the regulators overseeing gaming in the State of New Jersey,” according to an emailed statement sent to McClatchy News.
Boguslawski said AGS has worked with New Jersey’s “Division of Gaming Enforcement to investigate the cause of the event and in turn have taken corrective action.”
“Although Ms. Piluso may disagree with the outcome of that administrative process, there is no precedent for her demand, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court, if necessary,” she added.
Piluso is accusing the company of consumer fraud, breach of contract, negligence and products liability, according to the release.
“What is rather unique to this lawsuit is that we have included cause of action against AGS under the New Jersey products liability law,” D’Amato said. “We’re contending that the service that was offered to a player like Lisa is in fact, the product.”
He said that in order for them to recover financial damages, they must prove that the service was a product and that it was defective.
During a phone call between Piluso, her husband Frank and representatives from AGS on Nov. 27, 2020, one representative asked Piluso “What are you looking to get out of this?” according to the complaint.
“The $100,000.00 that I won,” she said, according to the lawsuit filed Nov. 11 in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
A representative told Piluso that “there were three money balls that should have never appeared” and that the game glitched.
Piluso rejected the settlement offer of $1,000 from AGS.
AGS was fined $1,000 by the state attorney general’s office for not ensuring the Capital Gains game was working like it should have, the AP reported.
“Can you imagine being told, ‘You won, but we’re not required to pay you or anyone else in the same situation,’” the D’Amato Law Firm release said. “How many other players have been in the same situation but agreed to settle for a fraction of their winnings after being told they, too, were ‘nice people’?”
“Besides suing AGS, we are pressing state regulators for answers, including full disclosure of their investigation into this incident,” D’Amato said in the release.
McClatchy News has also reached out to the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement for comment.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Slots player says she was cheated out of $100,000 jackpot. Now PA woman is suing."
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