Strip casino accused of patent infringement

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 11:25 a.m.

The Tropicana hotel-casino was sued by a Silicon Valley-based firm, which accused the Las Vegas Strip property of infringing its cash dispensing machine patents.

The lawsuit was filed April 12 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and was announced Thursday by USA Payments Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.

USA Payments says it controls a patent used to assist casino customers attempting to withdraw cash at an ATM machine using a credit card. When a customer attempts to withdraw more cash than the card's daily limit, the technology automatically converts the transaction to a debit transaction. It can also conduct the transaction as a credit card cash advance that doesn't require a personal identification number.

USA Payment claims the Tropicana is operating ATMs that essentially perform the same function, and therefore are violating this patent. The Tropicana is owned and operated by Aztar Corp. of Phoenix.

USA Payments licenses this technology to Global Cash Access of Las Vegas, which uses the technology in its "Casino Cash Plus 3-in-1 ATMs."

The Tropicana declined comment on the lawsuit.