Claims staff let her return to gaming after she asked to be banned
By DEAN PRITCHARD, SUN MEDIA, The Winnipeg Sun
WINNIPEG -- A Winnipeg woman is suing Manitoba Lotteries Corp., claiming casino staff allowed her to continue gambling for years after she agreed to be banned from the establishments.
NO TROUBLE RETURNING
Georgina Bauer, a self-described "compulsive gambler," entered into the Voluntary Exclusion Program in April 1996 but had no trouble returning to the gaming tables just two weeks later, alleges a lawsuit filed last week.
"In spite of the program and her enrolment therein, she was thereafter continually allowed into the casinos operated by the defendant to gamble without any intervention, even though she was a regular and many of the card dealers and pit bosses she encountered knew her and called her by name," says the lawsuit.
Bauer alleges she wrote a letter to MLC in December 2000 reminding staff of her enrolment in the exclusion program, to no avail. She says she continued to gamble in city casinos, losing money at blackjack tables, "and never encountered any intervention by the defendant MLC."
The lotteries corporation had a duty to keep Bauer out of its casinos or advise her it would not enforce the exclusion program but did neither, the lawsuit says. "As a result ... (Bauer) has suffered serious financial and emotional damages," says the lawsuit.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca
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