A simple email brought on a bit of a headache for one Maine casino. Oxford Casino in Maine emails five lucky guests each week, letting these players know that they’d won $250 in free slot play.
Free slots play is a regular promotion for many casinos, getting players in the door to gamble and have some fun. The players have a chance at some free winnings while the casino gets some loyal patrons back in the property to book hotel rooms, buy meals, and perhaps to engage in some more gambling after seeing that free play dwindle away.
The only problem for Oxford Casino was that last week, the property not only emailed the free play to the week’s five winners but also sent the same email to numerous other players. Many players believed they’d scored a nice casino bonus at the property, and the casino was left to apologize for the confusion.
Extra Free Play Result of a Human Eror
“On Jan. 10, five patrons were randomly selected and received an email correctly notifying them that they were a winner,” Oxford Casino general manager Matt Gallagher said. “Unfortunately, the same email was incorrectly sent to a number of patrons who were not winners. This was the result of a human error.”
The casino received permission from the Gambling Control Unit to retract the original offer from the patrons who weren’t the true winners in the promotion. The exact number of people who received the email wasn’t available. Several people responded to the Gambling Control Unit expressing their frustration with seeing the offer taken away.
“Me along with my mom, daughter and son all received the same message,” William Redmun told WGME. “I feel that this error was not the customer’s fault and therefore they should be obligated to at least compensate the people who were affected fairly.”
Oxford Casino an Exception to the Rule
Quite often when sports betting sites and online casinos make mistakes on their end, the customer ends up keeping the extra they’ve received. However, given the large number of messages addressed to WGME, it stands to reason that the number of people receivig the erroneous bonus message has been significant enough to cause financial loss to Oxford Casino.
Oxford Casino is one of two Maine casino’s that can award free play to customers. However, the states gambling regulations govern the use of free credit heavily. Therefore it’s no surprise that Maine Gambling Control Unit was quick to side with the casino in this case.
