Arelia Margarita Taveras had it all. And then, she lost it all at the tables. Now, she wants her money back from the casinos that took it from her, along with an extra $19 million dollars for her troubles.
Back in 2001, Taveras had it all. She had a bustling and thriving law practice. She was making lots of money (an estimated $500k per year). She was appearing on television on an expert commentator and was also a published author. Taveras had it all.
In 2003, Taveras started visiting Atlantic City to escape the pressures of her law practice. It was here, at casinos such as the Taj Mahal and Tropicana Casino Resort, that Taveras developed his compulsive gambling habit.
According to her lawsuit, Taveras would sometimes spend days at a time at the tables, refusing to leave and surviving on Snickers and orange juice. During one gambling binge, Taveras remained at the tables for five days straight before becoming so tired that she couldn't see straight.
Taveras started dipping into her clients accounts to raise money for her gambling habits. She ended up being disbarred for this and losing her practice. She lost her apartment, her parent's home and her practice. She apparently owes the IRS almost $60,000. And now, representing herself, she is suing to get it all back.
She has filed a $20 million dollar racketeering lawsuit against six Atlantic City casinos and one Las Vegas casino, alleging that they had a duty to cut her off, and didn't do so.
The casinos, of course, deny any wrong-doing. They say that they had no way of knowing that she was a problem gambler and that the responsibility should lie at the feet of the gambler and not the casino.
This would obviously open up casinos to a huge amount of liability if this lawsuit were to be successful. I just don't see how she has a case here. There has to be some level of responsibility that people should have to shoulder - it can't ALWAYS be someone else's fault.
We will keep an eye on this case. Taveras is now living in Minnesota, working at a telephone call center. She is 37 years old.
The World Series of Poker is known as being a haven for all sorts of degenerate bets involving multi-millionaire poker players.
Can Erick Lindgren play four rounds of golf, back-to-back-to-back-to-back, from the pro tees, in the scorching hot Las Vegas sun while walking and carrying his own bags, and still shoot under 100 each round?
Can Mike Matusow drop a ton of weight over the course of one year, and weigh in at 181 pounds by the beginning of the 2008 World Series of Poker?
Can Huck Seed learn how to do a standing back flip in just two months?
Can Howard Lederer (a vegan) eat a hamburger for $10,000?
These are some of the bets that have taken place over the past couple of years. A great deal of betting is also done on the golf course, where millions of dollars are won and lost on a weekly basis in Las Vegas. The action really heats up during the summer months while the World Series of Poker is taking place. You'll have six figure golfing bets, tennis bets, and a wide assortment of other bets. The bottom line is - poker players love to gamble, and they'll gamble on anything and everything.
As mentioned, the NY Times published a humorous article a couple of days ago, detailing some of these ridiculous bets.
They mentioned the Mike Matusow bet. Matusow was cruising towards winning the bet, but then went on a cruise with his girlfriend. Wanting to enjoy himself on the cruise, he offered Ted Forrest (who bet him $100k that he couldn't get down to 181 pounds by the start of June) the chance to buy himself out of the bet for $70k. Forrest refused, and Matusow ended up gaining seven pounds on the cruise. This left Matusow having to lose a whopping 15 pounds in just nine days. The article points out that Matusow "didn't eat for the last five days, did a master cleanse and spent time in the Jacuzzi". He ended up winning the bet, weighing in at 179 pounds. The weight seems to be rapidly coming back on though, and apparently Matusow made a bet with Erick Lindgren that he would weigh less than 200 pounds by January 15th, 2009. The funny part of the story is that Matusow conducted the interview with the NY Times while eating a 20-piece Chicken McNuggets meal.
In regards to the other bets that were mentioned at hte top of this article:
Yes, Erick Lindgren won the golf bet.
Yes, Mike Matusow won his weight bet with Ted Forrest.
Yes, Huck Seed managed to learn how to do a standing back flip in just two months.
And yes, Howard Lederer ate a hamburger for $10,000, even though he was a Vegan.
Just another summer in Las Vegas.
By now, you've probably heard that Mike Matusow won a $100,000 weight loss bet with Ted Forrest.
What you may not know is how this bet came to be, and how close Matusow came to losing the bet.
The origins of the bet can be traced back to the 2007 World Series of Poker. It was no secret that Matusow was packing on the pounds - he seemingly weighed more with every passing tournament. This fact was not lost on others, who usually took every opportunity that they could to razz Matusow about his ever-expanding waistline.
At the time, Matusow weighed about 241 pounds, according to an article that was recently published in the New York Times. During a 2007 WSOP tournament, Matusow casually mentioned that he used to weigh 181 pounds. Somebody mentioned that there was no way Matusow would ever weigh that again, especially considering the fact that he seemed to gain more weight every month. Ted Forrest and Matusow quickly agreed on a bet - if Matusow could get down to 181 pounds by the beginning of the 2008 World Series of Poker (June 3rd, 2008 to be exact), then Forrest would pay Matusow $100,000 (actually $60,000, as Matusow already apparently owed Forrest $40,000).
The bet was on. Matusow started shedding pounds, and appeared noticeably thinner throughout the year. He was running, he was eating better, and he was spending time in the sauna.
As the 2008 World Series of Poker drew closer, Matusow appeared to be headed for a sure victory. He only needed to drop eight pounds in 19 days to win the bet - a drop in the bucket for a 6'0 man who needs to drop weight in a short period of time, especially with six figures on the line. However, Matusow was soon going on a cruise with his girlfriend, and wanted to enjoy himself.
The NY Times article (link below) goes on to say that Matusow asked Forrest to settle the bet for $70,000, so that Matusow could enjoy himself on the cruise. Forrest, surely seeing an opportunity for Matusow to pack on the pounds and miss making weight, said no. I mean, who doesn't pack on weight during a cruise?
The cruise was a disaster for Matusow in terms of his bet with Forrest. He gained a whopping seven pounds over just seven days, which left him just nine days to lose 15 pounds. That, obviously, is a whole lot harder to do than eight pounds in nineteen days.
But he did it. According to Matusow, he didn't eat for five days, did a "master cleanse" (whatever that is), and "spent time in the Jacuzzi".
On June 3rd, 2008, Matusow weighed in at a svelte 179 pounds, winning the bet by a full two pounds. Many people at the WSOP remarked that Matusow looked like a walking skeleton, but don't worry - the pounds are quickly coming back on. According to the article in the Times, Matusow conducted the telephone interview while sucking back a 20-piece Chicken McNuggets meal. Erick Lindgren apparently bet Matusow that he wouldn't weigh under 200 pounds by the start of 2009. In Matusow's own words - "Right now, Erick is looking pretty good."
Las Vegas police are investigating a robbery of the Sahara Hotel and Casino poker room that apparently took place at 6 pm on Friday night.
Police are saying that one or more robbers robbed the poker room itself, and not the individual players sitting at the tables. One can only assume that this is because the robbers had very limited time to make their getaway, and robbing individual players would have been far too time-consuming. Also, players would have likely gotten much better looks at the robbers, which would have made their identification by patrons of the establishment that much easier.
There has been no indication as of yet as to how much money was stolen. Las Vegas casinos are usually pretty tight-lipped with this information, as they don't want to let would-be robbers know how much money is in the establishment.
Police have also not yet revealed what type of weapon was used.
Many people are surprised that such a robbery took place, given the amount of security (and security cameras) that are utilized in Las Vegas. Independent Vegas sources claim that the Sahara was chosen due to the fact that it is a slightly older establishment and might not have top-of-the-line security, especially compared to rooms like the Bellagio or Wynn.
Was this a very budget version of Ocean's 14?
Robberies of poker rooms in Vegas. Multiple home game robberies. Is it any wonder that more and more people are just choosing to stay home and play online?
We'll have more on this story as more details become available.
Thomas Preston, better known to poker fans as "Amarillo Slim", was recently the victim of a savage attack/robbery that forced him to check into the hospital with multiple injuries.
"Amarillo Slim" was owed $3,000 for a gambling debt, and had agreed to take a four-wheeler as collateral.
He was lured to a field, where he thought that he would be collecting his collateral.
Instead, he was beaten and robbed. During the vicious attack, "Amarillo Slim" suffered multiple injuries, including a broken hand, thumb and jaw.
He was also robbed of $8,000 in cash, as well as a diamond ring worth $85,000.
There is no word as of yet as to whether or not the culprit(s) have been apprehended.
They shouldn't be too hard to find, as "Amarillo Slim" clearly knew the identify of his attackers.
"Amarillo Slim" is a legend in the poker world - he won the 1972 World Series of Poker, and has 4 WSOP bracelets. He has approximately $630,000 in total lifetime tournament cashes. His last sizable cash came in May of 2000, when he placed second in the $2500 Pot Limit Omaha event at the World Series of Poker.
His reputation was permanently tarnished in 2005 when he was indicted on three charges of indecency with a 12-year-old child. The indictment alleged that he inappropriately touched a 12-year-old member of his family three times - he later admitted that this was true.
Was this attack an unfortunate occurrence, a disgusting act of violence against an 80 year-old man?
Or was it karma?
The online gambling industry scored a victory on Tuesday when the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a suit to block the forthcoming seizure of 141 of the most-trafficked online gambling domains in the world.
In a 2-1 vote, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Kentucky did not have the jurisdiction to seize the domains, and that domain names did not qualify as "gambling devices".
The state wasted no time in filing an appeal, and the matter will now be heard by the Supreme Court of Kentucky.
A number of organizations have lent their support to the industry in this case, including the ACLU, PPA, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Network Solutions and iMEGA.
Many people outside of the industry are keeping a close eye on this case, as these rulings could end up impacting many other online industries throughout the world.
In October, Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the state of Kentucky could seize 141 online gambling domains based on the fact that they were "gambling devices".
This ruling targeted some of the most popular online poker sites in the world, including Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars.
It is expected that the state of Kentucky will have an uphill battle on their hands as they try to overturn the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling. Many believe that the State's argument is flimsy at best and won't hold up at the Supreme Court level.
It will likely be a few months before this case reaches the Supreme Court of Kentucky. When it does, we'll post another update on this site.
As of right now, the domain names have not been forfeited and will (temporarily at least) remain with their rightful owners.
Christopher Proudfoot, 28, is facing substantial jail time after admitting to embezzling 936k pounds (about $1.35 million dollars USD) from his firm to pay for his expensive online poker addiction.
Proudfoot lost the money over a three-year period. It is believed that he lost a substantial sum of the money on William Hill, which is a major online gambling website that caters mostly to European players.
The prosecutor in the case said that all of the money had been lost, and Proudfoot had no means of paying any of it back.
How does a person steal that much money from a company?
Proudfoot was the finance and credit controller at the company, meaning that he had access to the company's books (and could alter them). An accountant who is skilled at the art of deception could conceivably avoid detection for a long while, and this is exactly what Proudfoot did.
The walls started crumbling in around Proudfoot about a year ago. His company started to suspect that Proudfoot was siphoning off money from the company, and terminated him. They also called in the police and fraud detectives, who immediately started going through the books of the company (Highland Network).
They quickly came to the conclusion that Proudfoot had stolen nearly a million pounds from the company over a three-year period to fuel his addiction to online poker. Proudfoot fled his parent's home and went into hiding - he was captured soon after.
Christopher Proudfoot has now admitted to stealing the money, and is bracing himself for a substantial prison sentence. He is currently out on bail (and hopefully not playing online poker).
