He also claims the companies paid him near-daily bonuses totaling $30,000 a month to keep him playing and to entice him not to report problems with the games to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

He says his complaints were made to local supervisors and VIP hosts, an online complaint portal, and even to the president of the casino and the CEO of its parent company. In his lawsuit, Antar claims he alerted numerous employees and officials with the gambling companies to the fact that there was a serious, recurring problem with disconnections, but that they knowingly kept malfunctioning games available to the public because they were too profitable to take down. A lot of people have this problem and they need help.”Īs casinos ramp up for their busy summer seasons they are struggling to hire new employees as current employees continue to advocate for fairer wages. “When I look at what I did, I'm sick about it. “I've been in prison once, and I'm probably facing prison again, and it all had to do with me not being able to admit to myself I was a compulsive gambler,' Antar said in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday. In 2013, Sam Antar was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for taking $225,000 in a fraudulent investment scheme. He also is the nephew of Eddie Antar, who founded the Crazy Eddie electronics stores in the 1970s and 1980s, who defrauded investors out of more than $74 million. In the most recent case, he has pleaded guilty to theft by deception. New Jersey is in the process of deciding whether to extend its law authorizing internet gambling for another 10 years.Īntar is a convicted fraudster who faces the prospect of additional prison time in November for a scheme in which he cheated friends and relatives of money he used to feed his compulsive gambling habit. Entain did not reply to requests for comment. The Borgata and MGM declined comment through a spokesman. They kept doubling down and giving him $30,000 a month, feeding him extra money to try to avoid scrutiny by the regulatory agencies.” The casino did not take corrective action as required. “It is quite another when you have them 50% of the time. “It's one thing if you have technical issues intermittently,” said Gramiccioni, a former Monmouth County prosecutor. He added Antar, 46, had lost “easily hundreds of thousands of dollars” during that time. His lawyer, Christopher Gramiccioni, said Antar experienced a disconnection rate approaching 50% during the nine months covered by the lawsuit.

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