SCRANTON – Five New York plaintiffs of Indian ancestry allege they were discriminated against at a Northeastern Pennsylvania casino for using their native language of Punjabi while gambling.
Surjeet Bassi, Jaswinder Chilana, Tajinder Singh, Surjit Singh and Darshan Singh Chilana of New York filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on March 30 versus Mount Airy, No. 1, LLC (doing business as “Mount Airy Casino Resort”), of Mount Pocono.
“On Jan. 12, 2023, the plaintiffs all traveled from their residences/businesses in Orange County, New York to utilize the facilities at defendant’s resort. As they played blackjack, defendants conversed without disturbance or interruption in their native language, Punjabi, which is native to India and widely spoken there, and the table host gave them no direction to desist in so speaking. Defendant posted no signs prohibiting or limiting plaintiffs or any other guests from so conversing in their native languages,” the suit says.
“Indeed, on prior visits to the resort’s gambling floors, plaintiffs had heard others speaking in their native languages, whether Spanish or Yiddish, without interruption or disturbance, and had spoken in Punjabi without incident or comment in the presence of defendant’s agents. Likewise, while defendant had a policy manual governing the operation of its casino facility, it did not prohibit or purport to prohibit or limit, guests or gamblers from speaking in their native languages as they gambled.”
The suit adds that a casino employee demanded the plaintiffs cease speaking in Punjabi while they gambled, and told them if they refused and continued to do so, that they would be escorted from the casino by security.
The plaintiffs’ suit continues that they did not receive an answer to their question to casino staff inquiring whether the alleged policy was in writing, and that they had frequented the casino for several years and spoken their native language while gambling, and had never been reprimanded for doing so.
“Embarrassed, upset and threatened with escort by security, plaintiffs decided to leave the casino and did so. The following day, a hostess employed by defendant, contacted plaintiff Jaswinder Singh, who carried the highest membership status issued by the defendant casino and was a frequent patron at the resort and its gambling operation. This hostess invited plaintiff Jaswinder Singh to the defendant facility, offering him hospitality, but Singh raised issue with the treatment he and his co-plaintiffs had received the prior day,” the suit states.
“On behalf of the defendant, the hostess replied in writing [text] that plaintiffs could not converse in their native language while gambling. On account of this edict, plaintiffs have experienced humiliation, embarrassment and the feeling of being second-class citizens, excluded from the ability to speak with each other as they choose to do while engaging in the public accommodation defendant provides. On account of this unlawful edict, plaintiffs are denied access to the defendant’s publicly-available resort.”
For counts of violating 42 U.S.C. Section 1981, Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, the plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief enjoining the defendant from preventing the plaintiffs from freely using their native language, Punjabi, while participating in the activities offered by the defendant in interstate commerce or punishing them for so doing, attorney’s fees, costs and any other and further relief which the interests of law and equity require.
The plaintiffs are represented by Vern S. Lazaroff of Lazaroff & Fetzko, in Port Jervis, N.Y.
The defendant has not yet secured legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 3:23-cv-00550
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com