Compulsive Gamblers Sue Casinos for Failing to Keep Them Out

Virginia Ormanian burned through most of her retirement savings playing slot machines in Detroit casinos last year - something she should not have been allowed to do.
The 49-year-old gambling addict had voluntarily banned herself in August 2002 from the casinos through a state program that was supposed to keep her out.

"I was counting on the casinos to honor their contract," Ormanian said. "I had to get my life back together."

Now Ormanian and Norma Astourian are suing the casinos for breach of contract. They claim the gambling companies didn't enforce the rules of the "dissociated persons" list on which they placed themselves. . . .

"[I]t was a vehicle to allow the gambler to help himself. It's through the genius of our legal system that this has metamorphasized into a potential risk for casinos," said David O. Stewart, a Washington, D.C., lawyer, who has defended gambling companies in self-exclusion and similar lawsuits, and advises the American Gaming Association.

Details here from the AP via LexisONE Headline Legal News.