Kasino Italy

The 5-cent Casino Row

Five years ago, Stella Romanski planned to have fun and some female bonding with her friends by going to MotorCity casino in Detroit Mich. While there, Romanski and her friends Dorothy Dombrowski and Linda Holman did pretty much what everyone else was doing, gambling and enjoying the buffet.

Now five years later, she stands in the U.S Supreme Court defending a judgment in her favor to the tune of $600,779 and 5 cents.

The vacation took place Aug. 7, 2001 during which time Romanski was 72 years old. During the three friends walk in the casino, the elderly lady noticed a 5-cent token lying abandoned in a slot machine tray. Seeing that the spot unoccupied, Romanski picked the coin up, and returned to the machine where she had been playing, intending to use it there.

A uniformed male casino employee soon approached the lady and asked her to come to the office. It turns out that the casino had a policy on abandoned tokens: leave it alone.

According to another security personnel, Romanski became "loud and belligerent" as they tried to explain the situation to her.

Security took a nickel from Romanski with the use of force, photographed her, duplicated her Social Security card and driver's license, and finally, banned her from setting foot on the casino premises for 6 months.

The punitive damages amounted to $600,000, and Judge Eric L. Clay of the U.S. Court of Appeals made known his view on the matter: that the casino has treated the old lady in an "inexplicable and egregious" way.