Shackleford Vs. Stratosphere Dispute

Last update: Feb. 29, 2008

This is the case that inspired the creation of this web site.

On September 20, 2007, I made a $1,000 wager at the Stratosphere. The bet won, making the ticket worth $2,900. The expiration date on the ticket was 60 days after the event, on November 21, 2007. On January 26, 2008, I requested redemption of said ticket. The reason I let it expire is I never had reason to go to the Stratosphere between Sep 20 and Jan 26. I have never heard of any sports book not honoring an expired ticket, and have heard plenty of stories of them being honored. Once for my web site Wizard of Odds, I did an experiment, in which I deliberately let slot machine tickets expire. When I went to cash them in, up and down the Strip they were accepted without argument. I have also had expired sports tickets honored at the Boulder Station, Plaza, and Golden Nugget. So, I had little doubt the ticket would be accepted. Here is the ticket in question.

Much to my surprise, the sports book manager, Patrick Rethore, denied the ticket. When I asked for a reason he said after tickets expire the money reverts back to the casino. I mentioned that most sports books accept expired tickets, and I would be happy to mail it to accounting, which is the normal procedure after tickets expire. He said it wouldn't help, because it would come back to him, and he would not honor it.

At this point I called the Nevada Gaming Control Board to file a dispute. The Stratosphere did not call themselves, which they are supposed to do for disputes of $500 or over (Nevada Revised Statute 463.362.2a). The agent seemed to ignore this violation. On February 15, the agent issued a letter, siding with the Stratosphere. No mention was made of the violation of the statute. On February 21 I requested a hearing, and have yet to hear a response.

Since the refusal, I asked about expired tickets at several other sport books in Las Vegas. At some I was told they take them on a case by case basis, but most of the time they are accepted. At others, they said if they can read them, they accept them. I have also asked many active sports bettors about their experience with expired tickets. All of them said they have always had them routinely accepted. I have heard of only one story of an expired parlay card being refused, in Reno, several years ago, and that decision was later overturned by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

Am I going to warn players about the one place that doesn't accept expired tickets? You bet I am! That is why I find in favor of myself, and add the Stratosphere to the Hall of Shame.

Here is what some others had to say about it.

Expired Ticket Refused

It finally happened. A big casino refused to pay a big winning sports-bet ticket that passed its expiration date. The casino is the Stratosphere, which declined to pay a $2,900 winner held by Michael Shackleford (author of our book Gambling 102), because the 60-day redemption deadline had passed. In our opinion, that’s a weak move on the part of the Stratosphere that should be taken into consideration by players in the future.

Why, you might wonder? If the ticket says "60 days to redeem" and the player misses the date, why shouldn’t the casino follow the rules? Here’s why. The casinos are in the legal right not to pay (on both sports tickets and TITO slot receipts), but it’s never been the way that business is done. In fact, we’ve written many times in LVA that expired tickets — and even lost tickets in the case of sports — are almost always accepted. And they definitely are in (almost now) all books. Making matters worse is the notoriety of this customer. If a guy with a heavily visited gambling Web site (wizardofodds.com) can’t get consideration, we don’t like the chances of the average player when it gets to the nitty-gritty.

Now to the lesson of this tale. Obviously, you shouldn’t let tickets expire. Cash ’em quick, or drop ’em in the mail (following the mail-in instructions printed on each ticket) if you accidentally leave town with one in your pocket. If you do wind up with a ticket that’s expired, look again to the mail. Several experienced players have told us that they’ve been instructed (by other books) to mail in expired tickets for best results and have done so with 100% success. If you find yourself in this spot, keep a photocopy and put the original in the mail. — Las Vegas Advisor, March 2008

I would point out to you that, in some states, laws were passed forbidding gift certificates to retail stores from having an expiration date. People would get them as gifts, and then forget about them. A year later, when they went to use them, they'd be told that they were no longer valid. Same principle. No earthly reason to have such a date, except to occasionally invoke the "penalty" and steal the money from the gift recipient. So, these states passed laws making such expiration dates illegal.

There is no reason whatsover why sports bets should have an expiration, and SURELY not as ridiculously short as 60 days. I can remember that they used to be something like a full year. 60 days is nothing more than a pure and simple scheme to steal the patrons' money. If you can prevail against the Stratosphere, I'd applaud your effort. It's time to teach some of these quasi-extortionary casinos a lesson." — Don Schlesinger (author of Blackjack Attack)

Source.

In the interests of fairness, if the Stratosphere would like to submit their own version, I would be happy to post it here. From what I gather from the incident, their argument seems to be that the ticket speaks for itself.