Brown Rudnick Hits It Big for Wynn Resorts in First Circuit

Brown Rudnick led Wynn Resorts to a complete victory when the First Circuit upheld a lower court's decision dismissing a proposed class action over the Massachusetts gaming giant's ticket redemption practice for slot machines at its Encore Boston Harbor casino.

On Sept. 23, a three-judge appellate panel unanimously held that the casino did not violate state gaming laws or otherwise engage in deceptive business practices with respect to its ticket redemption practices. The ruling marked Brown Rudnick's third major win in this case since it was brought five years ago by New York resident Richard Schuster.

Schuster filed a class-action lawsuit in July 2019, weeks after the casino opened in Everett, just outside of Boston. He claimed that patrons were being cheated because the casino's ticket redemption units (TRUs), which pay out slot winnings, dispense cash up to the nearest whole-dollar value and provide a voucher for the remaining change value of less than a dollar.

Patrons could redeem vouchers at any time at the casino cashier. However, because patrons could also reinsert the vouchers into the slot machines for credit, Schuster insisted that Wynn was unfairly trying to induce more play by failing to make change.

In February 2023, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs granted Brown Rudnick's motion for summary judgment, finding that the policy was neither unfair nor deceptive. The First Circuit agreed with the court below that Schuster's allegations were "fatally flawed" because the challenged practices did not prevent the plaintiff from redeeming the change voucher with the cashier at any time.

"The well-reasoned decision of the First Circuit affirming the dismissal of the case below reflects the same conclusion that every other court that has heard any part of this case has reached: the gaming practices challenged by the purported class plaintiff were entirely lawful," partner Wayne Dennison, who led the Brown Rudnick team, said in a statement published in Law360 and other news sources.

In addition to Dennison, the Brown Rudnick team also included partner Josh Dunn.