2nd Facial Recognition Suit Names Hollywood Casino As Defendant

JOLIET, IL — In addition to filing a lawsuit against Harrah's Casino in Joliet, lawyers from Chicago and New York have filed a near identical case against Hollywood Casino Joliet, accusing the casino of violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

The "defendant uses facial recognition technology with its video security cameras at its Hollywood Joliet casino," states the lawsuit filed on behalf of Ava Jackson.

According to the civil lawsuit, Jackson is a member of Hollywood Casino's rewards program and "each time plaintiff and other rewards program members gambled at defendant's casino, defendant's facial recognition technology scanned the geometry of their faces to identify them against stored facial geometry templates in defendant's databases."

The lawsuit also states that "as a result, plaintiff and others similarly situated lost the right to control their biometric identifiers and information."

According to the plaintiffs, Hollywood Casino Joliet had gross receipts of $118 million in 2018 and 957,117 patrons in the casino last year with an average daily attendance of 2,622. Hollywood Casino Joliet is owned by Penn National Gaming Inc.

The lawsuit indicates Ava Jackson, the plaintiff, has gambled at the Hollywood Casino in Joliet about 30 times during the past three to five years and most recently during the week of Sept. 23. Jackson is also a member of the casino's rewards program.

"Each time plaintiff gambled at defendant's Hollywood Joliet casino," the lawsuit contends, "defendant's facial recognition technology scanned plaintiff's facial geometry and compared those scans against stored facial geometry templates in defendant's databases.

"Defendant failed to inform plaintiff and other rewards program members in writing that it was collecting their biometric identifiers or information, the purpose and length of term for such collection, and failed to obtain their written consent before defendant collected their facial geometry scans."

Related Lawsuit: Joliet Harrah's Casino Sued In Facial Recognition Lawsuit