Gambling Boat Says For Employee Purposes Not a Boat
In order to qualify for the legal distinctions that allow gambling operations, many casinos are located upon riverboats that never move. Docked indefinitely, these vessels are boats in name only, so as to meet the letter of the law. Now that same letter has worked against the casinos, as one woman is suing for employee considerations due a maritime worker.
Tina Conder, who worked as a dealer on the Indiana riverboat Glory of Rome, developed medical problems due to a flea infestation aboard the craft. The myriad flea bites she suffered led to her contracting a blood disorder.
Conder also alleges the steroids she was forced to take to combat the insect bites and the blisters they left caused her to have two heart attacks.
Under state worker's compensation laws, Conder is eligible for limited benefits. However, if the boat is determined to be under the federal Jones Act, which protects workers at sea, Conder's potential damages rise much higher.
Caesars, the boat's operating company, has its attorneys contesting the maritime clause, noting that in several previous cases judges have found that indefinitely docked vessels do not receive Jones Act protection. However, a Harrison County Circuit Court judge ruled in December that Conder fit the Jones Act definition of a seaman, and her job was to help achieve the riverboat's gambling mission.
Both sides expect the final decision to be found in federal court. But it seems likely that, having established for licensing purposes that the location is indeed a boat, Caesars can then insist for employment purposes it is a land-based location. Even casinos can't have their cake and eat it too.
