A patron of the Resorts World Casino in Queens has been reportedly wrongly accused of attacking and damaging a slot machine on the premises of the casino. With some 500 people already arrested for assaulting casino property and causing damage, Pren Mrijaj was just going to be another statistic.
World Casino Resorts Accuses a Patron of Damaging Machines
Yet the Bronx resident has remonstrated against the accusation arguing instead that the casino had got into the habit of accusing unsuspecting punters. As Mrijaj called it, it was ‘larceny by extortion,’ with the Resorts World Casino detaining suspected wrongdoers until they agreed to pay up, the New York Post reported.
According to Mrijaj, who has filed a lawsuit with the Bronx Supreme Court, estimated that 150 people have been wrongly detained and forced to cover damages they hadn’t caused.
The New York post interviewed a casino security expert, Alan Zajic, who explained the most common problems with patrons assaulting casino property.
“If a person gets mad, they hit it with their bag or punch it with their fists and break it,” Zajic said. Yet, assaults on casino property seemed more likely on the East Coast than in places like Las Vegas, Zajic added.
Since 2011, when the Resorts World Casino opened, there have been 493 arrests for “criminal mischief.” According to Mrijaj, when security approached him in 2018, he was playing roulette and was subsequently dragged in the basement.
A case was brought against him and dropped. A year after the first incident, Mrijaj called to ask if he can return to the casino. As he did, he won $5,000 off a slot machine, but was again dragged to a basement and asked to pay $1,600 for the machine he allegedly broke on his last visit.
All of this was put down in the lawsuit he filed against the Resorts World Casino. The venue handles significant traffic with some 10 million annual visitors. While the company has refused to comment for the New York Post, a representative has admitted that broken machines do happen.
Damaged Machines Since Opening Time
When the World Resorts first opened doors, the venue had over 5,000 slot machines. Their number has since grown to 6,000, but one thing has been the same – the rate at which these machines are assault and damaged.
Even in 2012, security was reporting attacks on machines at least three or four times weekly, Mike Persaud, a security guard at the time, told the New York Times. Persaud only commented on what he saw during his shift.
The incidence of attacks has been much higher, and as in Mrijaj’s case, a broken machine could cost at least $1,600 to repair. Persaud explained that he had seen people punch, kick or slap slot machines for ‘refusing to drop the jackpot’.
On one occasion, Jashim Uuddin, said in court that he had punched a slot machine because he had lost $5,000. The court sentenced him to 70 hours of community service. Even to date, irate patrons continue to ‘punch, slap and kick’ machines at the Resorts World Casino.