NBA Star Ben Simmons Says He Was Racially Profiled At Casino

Ben Simmons Says He Was Racially Profiled by Australian Casino

Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76rs recently learned that a $240 million NBA contract won’t shield you from discrimination. He returned to his home country of Australia where he claims he and a group of friends were racially profiled by Melbourne’s Crown Casino. In a now-deleted Instagram video, Ben explains that he was denied entry into the Crown because he’s Black. He said:

“I find it so crazy that the only guy who doesn’t get checked to go into the casino is this guy. I get checked, Mike gets checked and Tys gets checked. Thank you Crown Casino. D*mn. And they didn’t let me in, or him or this guy. Wow, we got a long way to go.”

Kendall Jenner‘s ex-boyfriend was, later, accused of being denied entry because he violated the dress code. In a series of now-deleted tweets, entertainment reporter Peter Ford criticized Ben and company:

“Ben Simmons should check the dress code of Crown. Applies to anyone famous or not and any skin colour. He was wearing camouflage pants.”

He replied:

“my friend who got let in had camouflage pants on.”

The clearly confused Peter, then, accused Ben of refusing to show ID:

“But Ben why did you refuse to show your ID? Do you seriously think it’s a race issue?”

He, again, corrected Peter Ford:

“Wrong again mate”

Meanwhile, Crown Casino denies that the incident took place at all. Their statement read:

“Crown strenuously rejects reports that it discriminated against a group of visitors last night. Crown’s internal security policy requires our security officers to check identification of those persons they believe to be under the age of 25, this is an enhanced safeguard to ensure that no one under the age of 18 is permitted entry to the Casino Floor as required by Law. The group subsequently provided identification and were permitted entry. Crown is an inclusive workplace.”

Someone is lying here. Who’s account of the incident do you believe?

Written by Miata Shanay