An attorney who's lost over $1 million to the MGM Grand and several Atlantic City casinos has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the casinos. Arelia Margarita Taveras, a lawyer and TV commentator, filed the $20 million racketeering lawsuit against six casinos claiming they had a duty to stop her from gambling.The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Her losses:Arelia Margarita Taveras says her gambling began to spin out of control. She would go days at the tables without food or sleep, cleaning her teeth with disposable wipes so she didn't have to leave the table and sometimes passing out. She says her losses totaled nearly $1 million.
Now she's chasing the longest of long shots: a $20 million racketeering lawsuit against six casinos in Atlantic City and one in Las Vegas, contending they had a duty to notice her gambling compulsion and cut her off.
She lost her law practice, her apartment and her parents' home, and still owes the IRS $58,000. She said she even had considered swerving into oncoming traffic to kill herself.
Taveras admitted in interviews that she had dipped into escrow accounts she maintained for clients to pay for her gambling. She was disbarred in June, and faces criminal charges stemming from those actions, but is trying to work out restitution agreements to avoid prison.
It's all very dramatic, but convincing a judge that casinos have a duty to prevent customers from gambling when the customer is an addict is going to be a hard sell. The lawsuit names Resorts Atlantic City, the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, the Tropicana Casino Resort, the Showboat Casino Hotel, Bally's Atlantic City, and, in Las Vegas, the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.
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