Cincinnati’s Horseshoe Casino Accuses Of Cheating Casino Employees

Cincinnati’s Horseshoe Casino is battling a federal lawsuit that was first filed by ex-employee Phil Huddy in a U.S. District Court.

Huddy’s lawsuit alleged that the Horseshoe casino had taken advantage of him by asking him to regularly accept mandatory “volunteer” projects, extend working hours beyond scheduled shift times and also work during scheduled breaks.

Huddy’s lawsuit states that the casino never compensated Huddy for any of these extra working hours and also states that the casino terminated his services because of the federal lawsuit.

Now a number of ex-employees of the Horseshoe casino have decided to speak out and support Huddy by filing lawsuits of their own stating that they were also treated in a similar fashion. The Horseshoe casino denies all these allegations but these ex-employees are having none of it and want the casino to compensate them for the wages they were never paid.

However, Huddy decided to back out of the lawsuit after a number of ex-employees filed similar lawsuits because Huddy has a number of other legal disputes with the Horseshoe casino and he believes that it could cause a conflict of interest if he continued with the lawsuit. One such dispute that Huddy has with the Horseshoe casino is over the “The Parlor” which is the smoking area of the casino. Huddy has filed a case stating that the “The Parlor” violates the smoke-free workplace law that is prevalent in Ohio and states that over a dozen complaints has been raised against the conditions in the Parlor.

Huddy has also filed another lawsuit stating that the casino used a set of dice for a craps game even though they knew it did not meet the size and weight specifications as outlined by the state of Ohio. Huddy made this accusation back in July 2014 after which the Ohio Casino Control Commission investigated the matter and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to verify Huddy’s accusations. However, the commission did find a number of sets of dice that did not meet Ohio state specifications but stated that the casino had not used them in any games. Huddy was then suspended in July 2014 with pay.

U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith will hear the employee lawsuit sometime in 2016 and if the casino loses, then it could pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars to its ex-employees.

The Horseshoe casino has already been hit with the second largest fine in the state after the commission ordered the casino to pay $240,000 in fines for numerous violations including poor record keeping and outdated security cameras.