Thursday, April 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
A federal judge called the bluff of two professional gamblers who accused the casino industry of rigging electronic slot and video poker machines.
U.S. District Judge Lloyd George dismissed the allegations of Florida gamblers William Ahern and William Poulos for failing to prove their case.
But George relented some and gave the men until May 31 to prove they weren't bluffing, but in fact can show that winning a jackpot isn't virtually random.
"The plaintiffs in this case have only made generalized allegations," the judge wrote in last week's dismissal order. "The failure to plead these elements is fatal to the ... action."
The gamblers' attorneys are considering amending the complaint, but could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Casino attorney Dennis Kennedy of Las Vegas said he is confident the gaming industry will successfully defend the casino games' integrity.
The men's lawsuits, filed separately in Florida and later combined and transferred to Las Vegas, accused the casinos and slot manufacturers of tricking the public into believing that jackpots are random.
The gamblers alleged that poker machines don't play with a full deck of cards and permit casinos and manufacturers to accurately predict the next jackpot.
"A lot of (casino) guys said, 'If I knew that I'd quit my job and go out and start playing,'" Kennedy said.
And the chances of getting lucky with an electronic slot machine are concealed by the gaming industry, the suit asserted.
The lawsuit named many of the nation's major gaming companies who operate casinos in Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Mississippi and New Jersey, as well as gaming manufacturers.
The gamblers sought more than $1 billion in damages.
A third gambler, Larry Schreier of Oklahoma, has filed a similar lawsuit against the gaming industry and its use of slot and video poker machines. The case is pending.
Such lawsuits are considered by many to be fringe complaints.
The gaming industry has been hit with a few such suits recently. Among them were card counters in New Jersey, who sued a number of national gaming corporations for excluding them from playing, Kennedy said. They alleged that the prohibition on card-counting is a restraint on trade.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this story.
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