Late arriving raffle winner cries foul
His name was pulled from the barrel at last night’s big Princess Hotel and Casino anniversary raffle; but before George Davis could get his hands on the ten thousand dollar prize, controversy erupted. Davis, who is self-employed and currently in training to be certified as a tour guide, this evening told News 5 that he had just finished classes on Wednesday night when he got the good news. Elated, he hurried to the Princess to claim his prize and that is when his joy turned to disappointment. The incident has left Davis spitting mad, and the casino’s manager, Ayhan Isiner, on the defensive.
George Davis, Disputed Raffle Winner
“Without any hesitation, I left, forward to Princess and which I arrived and I tried to get in immediately at which the two security guards that were at the counter stopped me. When I explained to him that I was the winner of the ten thousand dollars prize, one of them opened the barricade and he told me to enter. The other one, he disagreed.”
Ayhan Isiner, Manager, Princess Casino
“The draw happened exactly at ten o’clock. And what we do as a procedure and rule, we call the number and the name. We write on the black board in front of the public at the stage. So this person was supposed to be present there which is why we announcing all the time whoever want to attempt the raffle, they have to be present at the casino at that time. So we give half an hour time until ten-thirty to client to come with copy of the ticket and claim the prize. So the ending time was ten-thirty. Ten twenty-nine we start the countdown, last minute, with the seconds. At the ten-thirty he wasn’t there, so all the public knew that we had to disqualify that ticket as procedure and rules, so we did. We pick another ticker, but this person enter the casino at ten thirty-two fourteen, which is two minutes and fourteen seconds late. So that is why I feel sorry for him that he lost, but he might win later.”
Patrick Jones
“Did anybody explain to you that you had a particular time limit within which to claim your ten thousand dollars?”
George Davis
“No time no, nobody had explained to me whatsoever that you have any time limit. So that was nothing informed to us… The ticket did not state that we have any time span of such that we can claim this prize. So I was going that we had enough time.”
Patrick Jones
“So far as the rules are concerned, is it spelt out anywhere that people have to be present to claim their prizes?”
Ayhan Isiner
Yes, certainly. Like for four years we have raffles every night, two times a night a raffle and on special nights, big raffles. So on every raffle we have announcer and announcement on stage, which have the name written, full, clearly. And you have to be present yourself, no one else no family members, no friends, yourself have to be there present at time.”
George Davis
“This is the first time and it’s really shocking to know that these people are tying swindle me out of a large sum of money that will come in very handy in a time like this. Very, very handy. This is money well needed.”
Patrick Jones
“So there’s nothing you all can do?”
Ayhan Isiner
“We can offer him champagne, a glass of champagne. Nothing else.”
The disputed ten thousand dollars was eventually won by Rita Ramos. Florencia Leslie walked away with the fifteen thousand prize drawn at midnight, while the grand prize of twenty-five dollars was won by Albert Musa Junior. Isiner says that despite the dispute and the lack of written rules, he sees no changes in the way raffles are done at the casino in the near future. Meanwhile, Davis says he is exploring his legal options.
