Judge Rules Gambling Not Inherently Dangerous, Tosses Lawsuit
A gambler who sued for restitution of her losses plus punitive damages against six Atlantic City casinos had her case dismissed today, as the presiding judge found she did not show any evidence that gambling is an inherently hazardous endeavor worthy of special protection.
Arelia Taveras had argued that the casinos, Resorts Atlantic City, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, the Tropicana Casino Resort, the Showboat Casino Hotel, Bally's Atlantic City,and the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, as well as the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas, had conspired to keep her gambling even though the casino management was aware of her gambling addiction.
But evidence shows that the casinos tried to discourage her play, at first with suggestions to quit her marathon sessions that were ignored, then by actually barring her from playing.
Further, the judge found that the gambling industry does not have a special burden of care, finding no connection between wagering and laws that control such activities as the dumping of toxic waste. U.S. District Court Judge Renee Bumb said, "She spent money on the bona fide chance that she might win more money. In short, she gambled."
Taveras said she lost over $1 million in a two-year period. A lawyer at the time, she illegally took money from escrow accounts to fund her gambling, resulting in disbarment and criminal charges.
Recent Comments
| Posted by: Libby Mitchell | When: 09/23/2008 04:16:10 AM EST |
| Here is our message to Arelia Taveras. Your court system needs to come up to speed on what is happening around the world. We would beg to differ with the judge's finding...Gambling in casinos IS now inherently dangerous to normal human beings....because it is managed very irresponsibly by the very irresponsible gambling industry! Dear Arelia, We wish to express our complete support for your legal action against casinos and also extend our thanks to you and the organisers of the "Stop Predatory Gambling Conference", in furthering community discussion about the ways that an insidiously corruptive but powerful industry unconscionably undermines human rights of citizens. It is staggering that the gambling industry is allowed to get away with it. It is tragic that our world governments are so weakened as not to stop it. Shame! Gambling may have been around for centuries and gambling addiction may have been historically a distinct possibility for certain very few 'abnormal' citizens, however the modern gambling industry is not run along traditional low impact lines. We at Duty of Care Inc understand too well that in casinos, gambling addicts now are more likely to be the norm rather than the exception, because of the invasive and highly successful marketing strategies that are applied by casinos to woo patrons, despite their knowledge that they are harming people savagely in the process of making money. Their products are dangerous to normal human beings. We applaud your work in raising community awareness about the need for a review of our traditional social attitudes towards gambling addiction, that are no longer the appropriate responses that should be applied, when balancing the human rights of citizens and the big industries that exploit them. Our attitudes are 'out of sync'. Until relatively recently, tactics used by the gambling industry to create and exacerbate gambling addiction have been left unquestioned, unexposed and unchecked. Public sympathy and aversion towards gambling addiction has thus remained largely unchanged over centuries, despite the fact that globally we are no longer dealing with the mere fallout from a game of cards, a ****-fight or casual game of two-up 'behind the pub'! The modern gambling industry is now a well-organised killing machine. It MUST be exposed. Congratulations all of you for leading the way in this valuable discussion about human rights and the political process. We look forward to hearing much more. The world MUST hear more of the truth. Right now we are too often fed rot. This is a world problem that has to be shared...and honestly aired between us all! The world IS with you Arelia,( and Les and others)...much more than you may know right now. We can only hope that prevailing understandings and negative attitudes towards gambling addiction may change as people better learn the truth. Libby Mitchell and Sue Pinkerton (Duty of Care Inc Australia) | |
