Case Explained: Store Clerk Who Was Shot During Robbery Sues Skill Games Company – Legal Perspective

A Philadelphia store clerk narrowly evaded a tragic end after being shot in the face during an armed robbery. The man is now suing the skill games company whose machines were the cause of the attack.

The Robbers Were After the Skill Game Money

The plaintiff is the 27-year-old Ahmedein Maham, who was shot during a nighttime robbery in the city’s Frankford neighborhood. The attack happened on September 14, 2024, when two armed robbers raided the Bridge Market, where the man was working.

The criminals were reportedly looking for the huge sums of cash stored in the property in order to pay out potential winnings for players of the skill game machines at the store’s premises. The robbers shot the victim in the face before running off with an undisclosed sum.

Luckily, Maham survived and is now recovering from his serious injuries. Burdened with trauma and afraid to return to Philadelphia, he is now suing Banilla Games, which manufactures and distributes the machines installed at Bridge Market.

Unregulated Gaming Machines Attract Crime, the Lawsuit Says

The complaint states that the gray-market skill games expose workers to risk due to the huge amounts of cash stores must keep in order to pay out potential winnings. According to the lawsuit, the unregulated nature of these machines results in weaker oversight and, by extension, an increased risk of crime.

The complaint also noted that Banilla Games’ machines do not have proper payout systems to dispense winnings and instead rely on employees to handle the matter, thus putting them in harm’s way.

The victim’s attorney, Robert Zimmerman, stated that these betting machines “have led to deaths and serious injuries of low-wage workers.” Zimmerman added that the machines also put entire communities at risk and noted that such crime is much less likely to occur in regulated casinos, which have proper security.

Zimmerman asserted that the robbers came after Bridge Market precisely because they were aware of the large sums of cash and lax safety measures.

It should be noted that this isn’t the first time a worker at a store offering skill games has been hurt, and some earlier cases have even been fatal.

In other crime-related news, a former Home Depot worker received a three-year prison sentence for stealing thousands of gift cards from her previous boss.