Mount Airy Casino Resort Settles Tip Pooling Dispute With Table Game Dealers
Posted on: December 30, 2025, 07:51h.
Last updated on: December 30, 2025, 10:10h.
- Mount Airy Casino Resort has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit
- The litigation alleged that the casino willfully violated federal labor law regarding tipped employees
Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Pocono Mountains has settled a class-action lawsuit that will see nearly 700 current and former employees cut a check.
Federal Judge Joseph Saporito in Pennsylvania’s Middle District Court has approved a settlement between the class and the defendant, Mount Airy #1, LLC, the parent organization of the casino.
Mount Airy has agreed to pay $2.3 million to resolve the matter, with approximately $1.47 million going toward the impacted class. The remaining money will go to lawyers and to cover court and settlement administration costs.
Eligible class members who worked at Mount Airy between Feb. 7, 2022, and May 8, 2025, will receive an average of $2,000. The court will conduct a final approval hearing on Thursday, February 19, in Wilkes-Barre to execute the settlement.
Lawyers Claim ‘Outstanding Result’
As Casino.org previously reported, the class-action lawsuit against Mount Airy Casino was brought in February by plaintiffs Jennifer Mak and William Neidig. They claimed that Mount Airy violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by taking a tip credit to allow the casino to count a portion of employees’ tips toward their federal minimum wage obligations.
The FLSA mandates that an employer taking a tip credit inform its workforce, something the class alleged Mount Airy failed to do. The plaintiffs additionally alleged that Mount Airy violated tip pooling rules under the FLSA tip credit regulations in allowing tips to be shared with paid time-off employees and nontipped managers and supervisors.
The eligible proposed class was determined to be 696 minimum wage workers at Mount Airy Casino Resort. Plaintiffs’ attorneys who wrote the preliminary approval settlement detailed that the average settlement check will “be over $2,000 per capita, with no class member receiving less than $100.”
“Class members will be automatically sent a check unless they ask to be excluded. In exchange for their settlement payments, class members agree to an appropriately narrow release of claims tailored to the facts alleged in the complaint,” the settlement reads.
This is an outstanding result for class members,” plaintiffs’ attorneys concluded.
In 2012, plaintiff Mak sued her then-employer, Parx Casino, located north of Philadelphia, on claims the property failed to accommodate her epilepsy disability. The case was settled out of court.
Trump Stump
Earlier this month, Mount Airy Casino hosted President Donald Trump, where he sought to hype his first year back in the White House. The president said the US was “dead,” but “now we’re the hottest country in the world” while speaking before several hundred of his supporters in the resort’s ballroom.
For the gaming industry, many had hoped the president would use the casino appearance to discuss the tax implications of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) that will limit gambling loss deductions against winnings to 90% next year. The change could require gamblers to pay federal taxes on phantom income.
Unlike most businesses that can deduct their expenses against their revenue, the OBBB will limit a gambler to deducting only 90%. That means if a player wins $100K during a year but also loses $100K, they’ll still need to pay federal tax on $10K.
Trump didn’t address the gambling deduction while at Mount Airy.
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