My daughter and son-in-law spent a week at the Hamaca last October, and they'd never go back after what happened to them. One night they went into the casino [run by Americans I understand] and they were immediately approached and handed a voucher for some free play. They sat down at a table and were told the play was in pesos. They lost what they had on them, and said they were going back to their room to get cash [it was in the safe] but the dealer [American] said not to worry about that, that they could continue playing and settle up later. Long story short, we get a hysterical call about midnight [we were in Santo Domingo] that they were told they owed over $4000 US to the casino, after they had been told they were playing in pesos and thought they had lost just over $100 US. Of course they insisted that they never said it was peso play. They refused to let them leave the casino without paying up - or they were calling the police to have them arrested. My husband got on the phone with some high-ranking casino people in SD who tried to step in and help but in the end they handed over their credit cards for a cash advance payment. My husband had called and spoken to the casino mgr. saying that we were driving out from the capital, but he refused to wait - I think he may have been a little unnerved by an angry Dominican father who has worked in the casino industry for 40 years. Then they told them they could bring the cash back to them for a credit - thank God they didn't do that because the bank later told them there is no such thing as a credit on a cash advance.
The day after they got home the crooks ran their credit cards through again and again, for $500 a shot, a total of about $2000 more - [they didn't have to pay that, the bank closed the card and gave them a new one]. It's important to realize my daughter not only is half Dominican and has been going there since she was in utero, but we also live a mile from Atlantic City and my husband has worked there since 1980 - and they're not naive casino newbies, they both grew up in the shadow of the AC Boardwalk and the casinos. Naturally, they never should have fallen into the trap of playing without cash in hand, but that's another story. We often wonder how many others this scam has worked on. When we were there last week we spent an evening with one of the SD casino mgrs that my husband has known forever, and they re-hashed it all over again, and we got angry all over again
I hiss when I hear the hotel's name.