Amid Legal Battle, BetMGM Sending Sam Antar Casino Offers
$5,000 Welcome Bonus
On Jan. 31, a federal judge in New Jersey dismissed a lawsuit against BetMGM and Borgata that was brought by Sam A. Antar, a recovering gambling addict and ex-con who belongs to one of the New York metro area’s most notorious white-collar crime families.
In his lawsuit, Antar accused the defendants of violating New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act by plying him with five-figure casino bonuses despite his having made clear that he had a severe gambling addiction, one that played a central role in his criminal convictions and saw him gamble $29 million — mostly through BetMGM’s online casino — between May 2019 and January 2020. But the judge ruled that since New Jersey has no requirements for casinos to, in her words, “prevent or stop inducing gambling from those that exhibit problem gambling behavior,” Antar’s case had no standing.
As Antar prepares to file an appeal, which is expected to happen as soon as Tuesday, BetMGM has been sending him emails offering bonuses to play their online casino games. On Feb. 12, for instance, the operator sent Antar a promotion containing a $5 casino bonus. Granted, that doesn’t have four zeroes attached to it like the old days, but the fact that Antar is receiving offers at all from his courtroom nemesis is interesting, to say the least.
As it turns out, Antar began receiving these promotional emails on March 30, 2023 — two days after he was released from his latest prison term.
Bonus offers after a ban
In December 2019, Antar was charged with theft by deception for stealing nearly $800,000 from clients that he’d promised to invest. Instead, he used the funds to feed his gambling addiction. (This was the crime for which he served his most recent prison term.)
The following month, MGM Resorts International sent Antar a letter banning him from patronizing the company’s many properties, including the Borgata, which previously responded to a subpoena from New Jersey’s Division of Criminal Justice that sought information on Antar’s betting habits at the Atlantic City casino.
“MGM Resorts International management has determined, after careful consideration, that it no longer desires to accept your business as a customer at its properties. This decision is effective immediately and a barred status has been placed on your account(s),” read the letter, dated Jan. 16, 2020.
Antar, who no longer gambles, assumed that ban extended to MGM’s online entities. Based on the emails he’s been receiving for the past 10-plus months, however, that appears to no longer be the case.
BetMGM did not respond to requests for comment, though it’s possible, based on the language in the 2020 letter spelling out the terms of Antar’s ban, that the present-day offers are being sent in error.
“In the event that you receive any solicitations or offers to come to any MGM Resorts Properties (whether from MGM Resorts or a third party) or erroneously are permitted to check into a room, such invitations or transaction would have been sent or conducted in error, and they do not supersede or change your barred status,” MGM’s letter to Antar read.
