MGM ‘No Duty of Care’ Toward Man Who Gambled $25 Million, Court Affirms

• Court upholds that MGM Resorts isn’t legally obligated to prevent compulsive gamblers from betting
• Plaintiff Sam Antar lost nearly $25 million on MGM platforms
• Lawsuit claimed MGM violated the Consumer Fraud Act by offering bonuses despite his addiction

A New Jersey federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that MGM Resorts – and US casino operators in general – have no duty of care toward compulsive gamblers.

Sam A. Antar sued MGM in September 2022 in a bid to recoup almost $25 million he lost by placing over 100K online bets on its platforms, including BetMGM and Borgata Online, from May 2019 to January 2020. The plaintiff blew more than $5 million over 16 days in January 2020 alone.

Antar accused the operator of violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (CFA), negligence, and unjust enrichment for offering him continuous “inducements to gamble” in the form of casino bonuses. This, despite knowing he was a problem gambler.

Antar Fraud Conviction

In 2022, Antar was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud charges. He was ordered to repay around $650K in restitution for gambling away money he promised to invest in pre-IPO shares. He has since been released.

“The casino owed plaintiff no negligence common law duty of care,” the judge added.

On Monday, a Third Circuit panel agreed, emphasizing that courts in New Jersey and the rest of the country have “uniformly” rejected imposing a duty of care on casinos over problem gamblers.

The panel also determined that Antar failed to prove that MGM engaged in unlawful behavior and rejected the claim that the operator had “misled and deceived” him by offering VIP bonuses.

“Antar was fully aware that the text messages from his VIP hosts offering bonuses, credits, and deposit matches were exactly as the hosts represented — enticements to continue to gamble,” the panel concluded.

‘Crazy Eddie’

Antar is the nephew of disgraced electronics mogul “Crazy” Eddie Antar, who was the head of the multimillion-dollar Crazy Eddie electronics chain.

Eddie Antar was arrested in 1992 on federal racketeering conspiracy charges and spent eight years in prison.