65-cent slot cheat%26#39; seeks $5M. from Bally%26#39;s
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Staff Writer, (609) 272-7258
Published: Wednesday, September 13, 2006
ATLANTIC CITY — The case of the 65-cent slot cheat has turned into a megabucks lawsuit.
Seven weeks after he was found not guilty of cheating at slots, a former gambler has amended his civil suit against Bally%26#39;s Atlantic City to add a charge of malicious prosecution and raise the damages he is seeking from $500,000 to $5.1 million.
Calvin Maultsby, 61, has been waging a legal battle against Bally%26#39;s ever since he was arrested at the former Claridge Casino Hotel on Sept. 22, 2003, for allegedly cheating a 5-cent slot machine out of $9.75.
Nearly three years after the arrest, the case finally went to trial in Atlantic City Municipal Court. A judge found Maultsby not guilty on July 26 of charges he had manipulated the slot machine by “fast feeding” coins into it to make it pay out a bigger jackpot.
With an air of sarcasm, Maultsby began referring to himself as the “65-cent slot cheat” because 13 nickels were confiscated from him by State Police and given to the casino during his arrest. The 65 cents represented the overpayment when the slot machine was cashed out.
While fighting the criminal charges, Maultsby filed a Superior Court lawsuit against Bally%26#39;s in 2005. The suit also names two casino security executives who were involved in Maultsby%26#39;s arrest at Claridge, which is part of the Bally%26#39;s complex.
“The reason I%26#39;m doing this is the fact that people levied charges against me even though they knew from Day 1 that it was false,” Maultsby said in an interview Tuesday. “Bally%26#39;s chose to use all of its money, influence and power it had to persecute me in the justice system.”
A hearing is scheduled Oct. 12 on Maultsby%26#39;s motion to add the charge of malicious prosecution and increase the amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
Harrah%26#39;s Entertainment Inc., parent company of Bally%26#39;s, declined to comment on the suit.
The suit alleges that Maultsby was the first person ever charged by an Atlantic City casino for allegedly fast feeding coins into a slot machine. Maultsby claims Bally%26#39;s prosecuted him even though it knew that a mechanical malfunction caused the slot machine to overpay.
Maultsby, a former Atlantic City resident who recently moved to Baltimore from Oklahoma City, estimated the criminal case cost him $200,000 in lost wages, travel expenses and administrative and legal expenses.
Maultsby is a former compulsive gambler who no longer visits the casinos. In 1993, he was accused of cheating a 25-cent slot machine at Tropicana Casino Resort out of $1.95. He said he mistakenly inserted nickels into the machine and later pleaded guilty on the advice of his lawyer.
He was sentenced to pre-trial intervention, a program that allows nonviolent offenders to avoid jail.
65 cent slot cheat sues Bally'sWow...that%26#39;s kind of a strange story. I really don%26#39;t understand what he did, but they went through all that for $9.75????
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