Sorry if this got posted: Outrageous...

[brianwspencer]

Not sure if anyone posted this, but I just read this online. It's infuriating and makes Philly Park look like a sack of awful human beings.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/colu...Turf_Club.html

EVERYBODY makes mistakes.
You make 'em. I make 'em.

When I make 'em, we run a correction, which takes a little bite out of my pride. When Danielle Dittus, a 25-year-old single mom, makes 'em, they take a bite out of her hide. She's a teller at the Turf Club in South Philly, so her mistakes cost her money.

During the course of a week, Danielle handles thousands of bets under high pressure at the off-track betting parlor. When post time comes, bettors line up and come at her fast and furious. Given that she's dealing with some who may misstate what they want, that she may mis-hear them or that she may enter the information wrong, mistakes happen.

If there's time before the race starts, she can void an erroneous ticket and enter a new one. If there isn't time to fix it, Danielle now owns it and must pay for the wrong ticket out of her own pocket.

That's a job I wouldn't want, but Danielle has to put food on the table for herself and her 4-year-old son, John.

But . . . what happens if she's forced to pay for a bad ticket - and then the horse wins?

She wins, too, right?

Wrong.

The Turf Club won't pay her.

This isn't hypothetical.

On Feb. 5, 2006, Danielle made an error while entering an $84 bet. Since the union contract says "shortages will be settled daily," and this would be a shortage, she would have to make it up.

However, the horse won and the ticket was suddenly worth $14,168.90.

The Turf Club refused to pay Danielle.

A classic Catch-22: If the erroneous ticket is a loser, the employee is responsible for paying the money to the Turf Club. If the erroneous ticket is a winner, the Turf Club welches.

Feeling abused and cheated, Danielle got a lawyer, William Ciancaglini, and sued.

The case went to arbitration and on Jan. 24, the arbitrators ordered the Turf Club to pay Danielle for the erroneously issued winning ticket.

The Turf Club said "neigh" and filed an appeal, which eventually will get them a jury trial.

Oh! Do you know who owns the Turf Clubs, which are in South Philly, Center City, Brandywine, Upper Darby, Valley Forge and the Northeast?

The same people who own Philadelphia Park Casino and Racetrack, who wrote themselves a ticket for massive bad publicity in January, when they refused to pay a retired Feasterville carpenter his $102,000 winnings after they had made a communications error.

I wanted to talk with Danielle, but she sent word through Ciancaglini that the union contract has language forbidding her to talk with the media. Calls to her union, Sports Arena Employees Union Local 137, were not returned.

Ciancaglini says he's mystified why the Turf Club is willing to spend more on lawyers than they would to just pay Danielle.

They must have their reasons, but Philadelphia Park CEO Hal Handel sent word that his attorneys advise him to decline comment because the case is being appealed.

Didn't these gaming guys - who practically have a license to print money - learn anything from the January episode? It's not always a matter of who's "right" according to the narrowest definition of the law. Public sentiment usually sides with David over Goliath.

Do these gaming dudes really want to beat up on a single mom over the 14G she won - in front of a Philadelphia jury?

Trust me, guys. That's a bad bet. A very bad bet.