Here is some important info for those thinking they have had a contract broken by Barona. <Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino Management reserves the right to change/modify the promotion at any time at their sole discretion with or without notice.> <If a participant disagrees with a Tournament Committee decision, they may submit a written complaint within seven (7) days to the Barona Gaming Commission at 1095 Wildcat Canyon Road, Lakeside, CA, 92040.> http://www.barona.com/events/UBT/UBT_gamerules.html BTW, a few of us played in qualifiers for a Pechanga $1million game. The folded because of poor participation.
A likely scenario: Here is an example of a likely scenario come this Thursday: Pedro had signed up for the Qualifier a month ago and made week-long vacation plans to travel from his home in Minneapolis to San Diego, taking vacation time from his employer. He doesn't frequent these message boards so he thinks all is well and good up until arrives at Barona casino after a long day of travel and is told that the tournament was canceled and that he cannot play in the "invite-only" tournament which will happen in its place. Even when he complains and explains the circumstances (i.e. that he was never told of the cancellation, nobody contacted him, etc.), he is denied entry into the invite tourney. He just gets "sorry Pedro, but we have done nothing wrong here. Tough luck. Maybe next time it'll work out better for ya." <<<Here is some important info for those thinking they have had a contract broken by Barona. <Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino Management reserves the right to change/modify the promotion at any time at their sole discretion with or without notice.> <If a participant disagrees with a Tournament Committee decision, they may submit a written complaint within seven (7) days to the Barona Gaming Commission at 1095 Wildcat Canyon Road, Lakeside, CA, 92040.>>>
another scenario UBT makes agreement with Barona. Barona is owed a TV program which will be worth its share finically $$ speaking of the TOC prize pool. CBS cancels UBT TV and UBT cant afford it's share of the TOC. At this point Barona is burned. Takes its right to back out of agreement. Takes its right to back out on the non invite players. At this point the non invite players are out, be it wrong be it right. I dont know if this scenario is true- but this is my guess. Its unfortunate, but this is clearly in the rules for this tournament series. <Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino Management reserves the right to change/modify the promotion at any time at their sole discretion with or without notice.> Also unfortunate, things like this ruin relationships between open players and casinos. Why ever open up a tourney wen you can have full control with an invite only format...........
Either scenario Either of those scenarios is entirely likely. There's probably fault on both sides of this fence. One thing we can bet on - the whole truth will probably never be revealed.
California law In California, the compacts with the tribes contain a clause that requires all disputes, rather between the state and the tribe, or, between a player and the casino, to be subject to binding arbitration by a neutral arbitrator. THis is a player's right. I just looked into this a few days ago - and read through two compacts, both of which specified binding arbitratrion was a player's right - and this agrees with what I found on the state gambling commision web site. California tribes are pretty much bound not to screw over players too much, with broken promises, because they can be brought into neutral arbitration, not a tribal court. Golden Acorn was in a bad position last year - gauranteeing $10,000 prize pools for $10 buy-ins and $25 rebuys, and attracting maybe 50-60 players - losing money, and, committed to a year end freeroll with a truck as first prize. My understanding from several conversations with their floor staff, was that they could not cancel out of the series or the freeroll - as they had made public promses. They could raise entry fees and lower prize pools, drop one of their monthly tourneys, and give out a smaller truck, etc. - but had to do the tourneys and the freeroll, as they had qualified sufficient players to put the freeroll on. Barona is probably facing this type of situation, they can do a lot of modifications, but can't simply cancel out; so, they drop back to an invite highroller only tourney and give back the buy-ins for other players. In the case of Pechanga cancelling their million dollar tourney, I do not know what they did to pay off the players who won the tounrey entries - but if they did not pay them off - the value of the entries - they could have been brought to arbitration - and forced to pay out - and forced to reimburse the player's legal costs as well - under the California compacts - if the players let them get away with simply taking the money and running - then the player's did not exercise their legal rights - Pechanga took a pretty big risk in simply dropping the tourney after they had awarded entries.
Hit It On The Head Barney Stone I don't comment too much on this site. However, I must say that BarneyStone hit it on the head with his last statement after he copied the url for us. Great job. This will be short and simple. He stated that the participation is low. I would think that almost any blackjack tournament on this earth will fail if there aren't enough people to play. In my honest opinion, we need to start lowevering some of these entry prices. Lastly, we have to look at the entire Indian Gaming Rules and Regulations, as to say they are almost and essentially their own governing body for their perspective casinos. God bless you all and have a wonderful holiday.
Barona inserted what is commonly known as a boilerplate statement that they reserve the right to change/modify the promotion at any time at their sole discretion with or without notice. Let's leave out the TV show which was a deal they had separately with UBT, the company. They advertised it too just like they did with the tournament format, but the players who have paid the money would readily release them of that. They wouldn't care to be on TV and would accept the modified tournament format. Both Barona and those who have paid their entry fees understood that Barona was going to comp some of its players. In other words, they understood that some of the players would pay no entry fees at all. The no entry fee part is not new. What's broken is Barona unilaterally pulling out of a deal they had with the players from whom they had taken payments. A written complaint should be sent to the Barona Gaming Commission, copy the California Attorney Attorney General, governor, state legislators and various newspapers in San Diego.
Orca, Im not sure if you are talking about the TOC or the qualifier tourney or one in the same. The TOC has been postponed by UBT. The funding, from anyone I have heard from, was directly to UBT for the game which had a charge of 9 to 10 grand. The small tourney took credit cards and I would hope Barona or UBT will quickly credit the accounts back. Im wondering if you might explain damages in this situation? Of course one could claim travel expenses and maybe even time lost at work, I dont know if an arbitrator would go for that or maybe the claim would be too low I dont know the limits here. Everyone winning a seat for the TOC has this little jingle to hang to, Not Canceled, Postponed.
I hate to say it but this case against Barona by a Fresno couple has me laughing. http://wrightrepublican.blogspot.com/2007/10/bed-bugs-at-barona.html
The same principles apply to both events. If one would recall, some players "qualified" for the "TOC" at Barona when it withheld $10K each from their winnings. Players at the Palms or Venetian events, for example, paid their entry fees to and received their winnings from the casinos themselves. Barona is a California Indian casino licensed to take in entry fees, run card-game tournaments, and pay the winners. Barona understood there had been scattered "TOC" entrants who were paying the required entry fees along the way. Any company collecting entry fees for its advertised "Qualifier" or "TOC", did so on its behalf. The Ultimate Blackjack Tour (UBT) billed itself as an entertainment media company. It was Barona's marketing, and complex business partner in the deal. Barona really advertised two independent tournaments: one, a "Qualifier" (Nov 27-29, 2007) with a low, and the other, the "Tournament of Champions" (Nov 30-Dec 2, 2007), a high - $10K - entry fee along with their respective payouts. "TOC" and "Qualifier" are misnomers. "Winning a seat" meant having $10K taken out of one's winnings to pay the "TOC"'s entry fee; and "qualifying" for the "TOC" simply meant paying the required entry fee, or being comped into it. From the perspectives of those who have paid their entry fees, the "Qualifier" and the "TOC" that were advertised and guaranteed by Barona were not postponed. They were modified. Their respective names were dropped to reflect what they truly are more accurately; and their format changed. Damages have to be mitigated, and one would have to consult one's own lawyer on those. However, what would be lost also is equity. Much better publicity could be earned if Barona would rethink its position and let all those have paid the entry fees play in the respective tournaments than it could through the ill-fated TV show deal it had with its business patmer. By its own admission, UBT is "not cash trapped" by the way. See link below. TV show or not, it could have held up its end of the deal, by simply contributing its share of the promised Grand Finale tournament prize pool. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Blackjack+buddies+hope+to+draw+ace+with+tour+on+CBS-a0147058811 I'll more succinctly summarize all of this if I have the time.
