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I wanted to inform other members of an incident at the La Flor De Itabo Hotel casino in Playa del Coco http://www.flordeitabo.com/ that happened to me on a recent trip. My son and I were the only customers in this small casino that night and played only roulette. If you are not familiar with roulette in Costa Rica, they use round bingo style cages filled with numbered balls instead of a roulette wheel. They spin the cage until it stops and a number has fallen into a metal pocket attached to the round cage.
On the final spin my son and I had made a couple modest bets of between $5 and $10 on only 3 or 4 numbers, and not the usual $1 bets we had been making earlier. If they had hit we could have one up to $350. The dealer seemed very bothered by the bets which seemed unusual to me. What the dealer did next was outright cheating. When he saw our bets, he looked to the cage and saw that the green 00 ball had replaced the previous ball in the pocket when the previous ball was removed at the end of the previous spin. Instead of clearing the green 00 ball and spinning the cage, he left the 00 ball in the pocket and gently rocked the cage so that it did not spin entirely and thus leaving the 00 in the pocket and declaring it the winner. The dealer obviously determined that we had made no bets on the green numbers and took it as an opportunity to cheat us out of a legitimate spin.
I protested loudly to both the dealer and the pit boss that he didn’t spin the cage and to do it over but nobody would do anything. We just wanted him to re-spin fairly. After being denied we cashed out our winnings and left. All the other spins of the cage during the night (and at all other casinos I visited in Costa Rica) involved rapidly spinning the cage dozens of times after clearing the pocket. This dealer’s actions were obviously done to cheat unsuspecting tourists, and I suspect it wasn’t the first time. What is also upsetting to me is that dealers should not have any interest in whether customers win or lose, unless the management of the casino encourages this activity.
So gambler beware and also know that there is no gambling commission that monitors the casinos either!
capnsaltine…I too played there…the slot machines…I only got $20.00 of quarter tokens but played all $20.oo and won not one single pull of the levers. Odds are never good at casino but that is in my mind not possible if all is fair and square.
..but that is why they call it gambling maybe it was just bad luck?
Terry From TexasCapnsaltine, I’m glad you posted. I had a big problem with this casino a few years ago when my friend from San Jose and I were playing there. We started playing at this Casino in the “tute” table and won about $75 each. We then moved to the Rouellete table and started playing harder by placing bets of $5.00 – $10.00 on select numbers. We starting winning modeslty but on one special ocassion we hit number “20” with a $10.00 bet which means they had to pay us $350.00. While we were celebrating the casino manager approached us and denied our payment. We obviously complained heavily and the dealers proceded to clear the chips and close the Rouellete table. We were threatened, accussed of cheating and told to leave the casino immediately without paying us our winnings. We left and headed towards the Fuerza Publica station in Coco to report the incident but they never even bothered to visit Flor de Itabo. We reported the incident weeks later to the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) with no success of any charges or getting paid for our winnings. I have several stories of other people that have had problems with this casino. Be careful of playing here as they don’t even have surveillance cameras, they don’t respect Costa Rican gaming regulations and they possibly operate without a gaming license.
Stay away from there! If you want to play at a Casino head to Coco Verde or the Casino Concorde at Fiesta Premier. I have played in Las Vegas and in Costa Rica but I have never encountered such a fraudulent casino as this.
Their website states that “Flor de Itabo hotel is owned and operated by Italians who care about their guests.” It would appear from their wiring instructions which you can see at http://www.flordeitabo.com/descrip.html#Description that the owner is a man called ANGELO OLIVOTTI
We must remember that there is a very good reason casino companies can spend a BILLION dollars on a new casino and it’s not because their customers are winning it’s because the odds are very much in their favor …
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comWhich Italians? Tony Soprano, or maybe the Gambinos, or . . . . I don’t know a self-respecing Italian who would advertise that way, unless it’s the, well, you know who. . .
And a poorly written website with grammar and spelling errors, I might add, and mentions ‘Games of Chance’!
Harvey
Thanks Terry for your story. It seems that cheating is their method of operation. Perhaps I would have been gotten into more of an issue if we had actually hit on the number for $350 and they denied it. I can just envision a scene in a wild west movie where an angry patron tips over the gambling tables and breaks a bottle over someone’s head. Just kidding of course. I don’t mind losing in a fair game, but their actions to customers are outlandish and should be made aware to anyone who is unfortunate enough to visit there. By the way I tried to email the casino info@flordeitabo.com but their mailboxes are full, most likely by complaints.
Neil from Massachusetts
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