After decades of gambling at casinos across the country — winning, losing, winning, losing — Denise Ezell says she finally hit the motherload: a $127,000 jackpot at a progressive Blackjack table at Detroit’s MGM Grand.
She screamed. The gambler seated next to her high-fived her. Onlookers cheered. The dealer congratulated her.
Then came the buzzkill: The casino refused to pay her.
“I walked out of there penniless,” recalled Ezell, who spent months trying to collect her winnings, to no avail.
So she sued.
In a classic David v. Goliath tale unfolding in U.S. District Court, the 65-year-old working-class Detroiter sued the casino giant this week, alleging MGM concocted a “bull—-” story to avoid paying her her winnings after years of taking her “hard-earned money.”
The lawsuit stems from an incident that occurred on Oct. 30, when Ezell and a friend ventured over to MGM in Detroit to try their luck at the tables. Ezell wound up winning the jackpot on a side bet playing progressive Blackjack.
But according to her lawsuit, after making her big win, MGM told her that she was trespassing and refused to pay her.
“I had no clue as to what the hell they were talking about!” Ezell said, noting she had been gambling weekly at MGM since 2015, and no one ever stopped her, much less refused her money. “Do you think I would have gone down there and spent my money for eight years, knowing I was trespassing?”
According to Ezell, a pit boss explained to her that the trespassing allegation stemmed from a 2015 incident, when the casino accused her of panhandling and ordered her out of the building.
As Ezell tells it, it was a huge mistake. What the casino considered panhandling was really her arguing with a cousin — not a stranger — over money at a blackjack table. She explained that the two had a deal when they would gamble together: When one started losing, the other would float them some cash to continue playing. But, that night her cousin wouldn’t give her more money. An argument ensued, leading to Ezell getting escorted out of the building.
“A security guard came up and said, ‘You’re bothering this patron,'” Ezell recalled. “I said, ‘This is my god—- cousin.'”
But the security guard persisted, according to Ezell, reportedly telling her: “‘You have to leave. You’re panhandling.'”
“I didn’t even know what the hell panhandling was,” recalled Ezell, whose blood still boils when she thinks about that night.
Perhaps more aggravating is the night she finally won big, Ezell said, when a pit boss allegedly strolled over and told her: “‘I’m sorry to tell you we’re not going to pay you. You’re trespassing.'”
“I said, ‘What the F—?'” recalled Ezell, who continued to protest after being asked to leave. “I said, ‘You know, this is some bull—-!'”
As of Thursday morning, MGM had not yet been formally served with the lawsuit, but the Free Press provided the company with a copy. No officials were readily available for comment.
For Ezell, who earns a living wage working for the State of Michigan doing administrative work, and has a daughter finishing up medical school, the $127,000 would have been handy, she said. She’s not in dire straights, she noted, but that extra money could help her daughter pay off her six-figure loans.
Besides, she argues, she won that money fair and square.
“I just thought when you won, they would pay you,” Ezell said, noting: “When you lose, they take your damn money.”
As for the casino’s alleged trespassing claim, Ezell said she has never been notified in any way — not by email, phone call, letter or text message — that she was prohibited from gambling at MGM Grand Detroit. She also said she recalls asking the security guard who escorted her to the door that evening in 2015: “I asked, ‘How long does this last?’ He said, ‘Maybe 24 or 48 hours.’ So I just left. I was pissed.”
About two weeks later, she returned to MGM and started gambling there again, she said. And no one said anything.
According to the lawsuit, and interviews with Ezell and her lawyer, here is what drove her to sue:
It was Oct. 30 when Ezell got a call from a friend asking her to go gambling. She didn’t have cash to spare, so her friend spotted her $100.
The two first went to Motor City Casino, where Ezell got up to $300 in winnings. Around midnight, they ventured over to MGM Grand where Ezell sat at a progressive Blackjack table for more than two hours, her money quickly disappearing.
Around 2:30 a.m., she was down to her last bet. As an avid progressive Blackjack player, Ezell said she religiously played the side bet — which is a bet that your original two cards, combined with the dealers up-card, will combine for what would look like a winning poker hand.
The dealer showed an Ace of Spades and a Queen of Spades.
Ezell had a Jack of Spades and a King of Spades.
A straight flush.
Finally, she had beaten the house.
“It was exuberating,” Ezell recalled. “We were high-fiving … The dealer, he was excited. So were people around me. No one had ever seen anyone win that jackpot.”
But then came the pit boss.
“He said, ‘Mam, do you have a player’s card or your driver’s license,'” Ezell recalled him asking.
She handed over her driver’s license.
About 15 minutes later, another casino boss appeared and delivered the blow: She was trespassing, Ezell says she was told, and she was asked to leave.
“I walked out of there without a dime,” Ezell recalled. “Good thing I had some damn gas (in the car).”
According to the lawsuit, after Ezell won the jackpot in 2023, the casino gave her a number to its security department while escorting her out.
Over the next several days, she called that number and spoke to a security employee who she said told her: “Don’t worry about them saying you were trespassing, we are going to get you your jackpot.”
That employee also allegedly told Ezell he would call her back. But when he did, she said he told her “’This matter has been escalated up because it was out of his pay grade.’”
Attorney Ivan Land, who is representing Ezell in the lawsuit, said his client didn’t want to sue but had no choice. He said she tried to resolve the issue out of court by first going to the state gaming board for help, but that the board said it couldn’t force the casino to do anything; that the gaming board was only an advisory committee.
“We wasted three months trying to get action,” said Land, who also maintains he tried reaching out to the casino’s legal team but never got a response.
There was no other choice but to sue, he said.
“They allowed her to gamble there and spend her hard-earned money for eight years, and then, when she hits the jackpot, they run this crap, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t be here in the first place?'” Land said. “We know the casinos always win.”
That’s what’s so egregious about this case, Land said. The casino watched her lose for years and kept her money. And when she finally did win, he said, they told her: “‘You’re not getting a dime, now get the hell out of here.’ That’s just not fair.”
Ezell agrees, stressing: “I just want my damn money.”
As of Thursday, Ezell had not yet been paid her winnings.
Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com
