Misdial casino, you may get Mr. Refund

By Abigail Goldman

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008 | 2 a.m.

At least on the surface, this is a fight about a number: 7.

That digit is the only difference between the phone number of Michael Kolar’s income tax filing business, 866-MR-REFUN (866-677-3386), and the number people dial when they have questions about any of the seven properties owned by Ameristar Casinos Inc., which is 866-MORE-FUN (866-667-3386).

Written out, they look different. Punched on a key pad, they’re practically the same. And dozens of people mix up the two every month. This wouldn’t be a problem if Ameristar, a Las Vegas-based company, weren’t convinced Kolar, aka Mr. Refund, is taking calls intended for the casino corporation and saying cruel things — pretending to take reservations, offering callers specialized suites that do not exist, telling callers the casino company issues coupons to lure problem gamblers, that room rates are much higher than advertised and that any number of the hotels have burned down.

Kolar denies these allegations. And because he has to pay for the calls that come in to his toll-free number, he proposed a simple solution: Pay him $100 a month to tell callers looking for Ameristar they had dialed the wrong number.

Ameristar was not interested in that offer. Instead, it sued.

The lawsuit was filed against Kolar in Illinois, where he lives, and accuses Mr. Refund of malicious conduct designed to injure Ameristar. The company, whose closest casino is Cactus Pete’s in Jackpot, near the Idaho border, is asking the court to make Kolar surrender his phone number permanently.

Attorneys and representatives of Ameristar declined to comment on the case.

Kolar says he got five calls for the casino company Sunday. He says he got another 17 Monday, the day he touched down in Vegas for the IRS Nationwide Tax Forum at the Rio, where he represented his company at a trade show booth. The Mr. Refund logo is a cartoon man holding a leather briefcase so full of cash it’s spilling out of the seams and fluttering to the floor.

When Kolar says he thinks the misdialed numbers are from people who have poor hand-eye coordination from years of sitting at the slots, he isn’t kidding.

“They expect me to work for free and reroute their phone calls,” he said.

At the trade show, he handed out baseball hats embroidered with “Mr. Refund,” like the one he wears, and a pink version that read “Ms. Refund.”

There are three other toll-free phone numbers that, aside from the prefix, share the casino company’s exact number. One is disconnected, another belongs to a cruise operator, the third is a phone sex line. It’s unknown how many confused gamblers call these numbers looking to book a room. Sometimes they call over and over again, Kolar said, even after he’s explained that he’s an accountant, not the reception desk.

“A casino does not give refunds,” he said.

Ameristar has fought this battle with Kolar since at least 2006, when it first started sending him cease and desist letters. Kolar says he has no idea where the company came up with the accusations, and the complaint filed in court does not indicate Ameristar has proof Kolar is up to no good. The tax preparer offered up the $100 fix soon after the first complaint was lodged, but the company ignored it, he says. In court documents, Ameristar attorneys suggest that because the company did not comply with Kolar’s demand to be “incentivized,” he stepped up his harassment efforts.

Neither Kolar nor the casino company is interested in changing phone numbers, because both say doing so would be damaging to advertising and branding strategies.

On Tuesday, multiple calls to 866-MR-REFUN went unanswered, and there was no message machine.