Gambling-Addicted Lawyer Suing Casinos for Damages
By Stony Olsen
What do you do if you are addicted to gambling? Does the casino owe you a duty of care? Or is Arelia Taveras just betting on one final roll of the die?
Lawyer Arelia Taveras plans to take one more big gamble.
Taveras used to be an up-and-coming attorney representing victims of the World Trade Center attacks. Then she got addicted to the tables — mostly in Atlantic City, but occasionally Las Vegas as well. When I say addicted, I mean just that — she would keep her dog by her side and brush her teeth with disposable wipes so she wouldn't lose her seat.
She once stayed five days at the tables, too, subsisting on orange juice and complimentary candy bars. I would venture to say that is an addiction.
She lost over $1 million at the tables, her law license, her apartment, and her parents' home. In addition, she's under criminal charges for stealing almost $100,000 of client funds (perhaps to pay the casino?), owes the IRS $58,000, and in general just has messed up royally.
So what should an inveterate gambler do? Well, Taveras has concluded that she should put her legal education back to work — by suing the casinos she owes a million dollars! Her alleged damages? $20 million. So she'd clear a cool $19 million if she won — not a bad payoff. And judging from the fact she's likely bankrupt, well, the risks may not be that high.
What's the legal theory? That old standby, of course: duty of care. Taveras claims that the casinos owe her because they had a duty to care to her — i.e., once she started passing out on the tables and staying for four to five days straight, the casinos should have stopped the bleeding. My take: when someone is losing $5,000 an hour as Taveras allegedly was, I doubt the casinos want to stop that.
There is, of course, precedent in the area of alcohol: I believe most states require bars and other places that sell alcohol to judge how inebriated someone is, and if the person is too drunk, they don't sell to him or her. If they do, they can be liable. Perhaps this can extend to casinos as well?
In any case, burdens of proof will likely do this case in. Just how is a casino to know someone is incapable of controlling himself or herself versus having a good time? On the other hand, after five days, it might be time for someone to think, "That's enough."
So this last gamble by Taveras will be fun to watch. When the chips are down, will it come up roses for her, or is this betting against the house?
I signed up for LawCrossing a couple of months ago and have obtained a few promising leads. Mark
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