I think a few of us have some interesting gambling stories to pass on to the rest of us and I hope the 'rest of us' will post a few stories here.

Here's the latest that garners some attention.

For some reason I laugh every time I read it.... and I'm sure there will be lots of laughter on the way to the bank if the court/judge finds in the gambler's favor.

A 53 year old high roller from Nebraska and his lawyer are attempting to dismiss criminal charges which resulted from nearly $15 million in gambling debts.

The gambler claims to have lost $112 million at Harrah's casinos in 2007 claiming that the casinos encouraged him to gamble while intoxicated. (Must have been one heck of an extended hangover!)

There's more to this case, but it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

But no matter what the decision, the attorneys always win.

If the court rules in the gambler's favor, I'm heading to the nearest casino with my life's savings and drink lots of alcohol and place it all on number 34.

If I lose it, I'll simply call his lawyer and go to court.

Okay, how about the Fry's executive that would order more goods than needed at higher prices in exchange for kickbacks to his private shell account to the tune of about $65 million? And of course the funds were used to partially pay back his gambling debt, mostly to the Las Vegas Sands Corp. He got busted big time. He also owed millions to MGM, Hard Rock, Caesars, and others.

will, I believe you speak of Terry Watanabe in your story. I've been following it for years. This is a pretty fascinating case if anyone would like to study it more. If not, he is a super rich dude, and could pay the $14.7 million with no problem. He's already paid Harrah's back over $100 million in other gaming debts. This guy accounted for about 20% of total revenue for Harrah's and Rio. He is such a whale that they created a whole new level of players club level and he holds card #1. I think Celine Dion's husband might be in that club too.

Anyway, Terry's story isn't really about being liquored up and drugged up, although that's an issue being raised. A player at his level who gets his own gaming tables, own dealers, etc, also gets personal security provided by the casino. That security insures he gets what he wants, be it drugs or alcohol or escorts or peanut butter sandwiches. So there is the angle that they did get him liquored up. I think it would be really hard to prove that they did it against his will. After all, he has a long track record that speaks for itself.

The real issue with Terry is that he was given 60 days or so to pay a given debt for a gaming marker. It happens all the time, even with low rollers. It seems Harrah's caught him off guard when they went to collect on that debt. You see, most people think of a marker as a loan from the casino. "Under law", loans are personal negotiated transactions. But in Nevada, casino debts are considered "bad checks" which fall under a whole new set of enforcement policies, such as being payable on demand and prosecuted by the government.

Terry is skirting both sides of the equation with something akin to a post dated check. Is it negotiable? Must Harrah's sue to collect? is it a debt or a loan? When must it be paid back? Must it be paid in full? Then you add in the liquor angle and you get more issues such as his condition when the "agreement" was made. Was it in good faith?

There are lot's of different complaints, allegations, and counters. I don't remember them all. I do know that it has been an interesting read every time it has come up in the last few years.

Thanks, JMT. Great info and very interesting!

It appears that it is somewhat complicated but I'm "old school" and simply feel that no individual should accuse another individual for their own 'stupidity'.

And that seems to be the norm these days.
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I watched a hi-roller a few weeks back playing Craps at the Orleans.

It was somewhat comical while watching from the sidelines.

It started with a quiet table.

And then a heard of 'suits' started to mill around that 'somewhat empty' table.

And a well dressed gentleman came to that table with a brown paper bag. And at his side stood a well dressed casino 'escort' whose job was to make sure that the guy was comfortable and well taken care of while the casino had a chance of taking his money.

And then that brown paper bag was open and a bundle of cash was removed and placed on the table. And everything stopped for a few moments while that big bundle of cash was counted out and spread over just about one-third of the layout.

I estimated it to be about $10,000 in various denominations. It took a while to count it properly.

And it was evident that all that cash was counted by at least five suited guys even though it only took one to spread it out and do the actual tabulations. But there were silent 'nods' from suited heads up and down that Pit when the chips were presented to that hi-roller.

And the hi-roller placed his bets. Very big bets on all the numbers and all the hard ways.

But within ten minutes all those chips were back in the possession of the casino, so the brown paper bag came out once again and another huge wad of cash was removed and converted into chips while all those guys in suits watched with eagle eyes.

And the chips were not passed until all those silent nods were recognized.

And within another ten minutes the casino owned them once again.

The brown bag made its apperance a few more times and eventually got emptied.

We figured that that hi-roller must have donated about $60,000 to the casino within a matter of 30 minutes.

But he walked away with a smile on his face and the guys in the suits looked somewhat relieved.

One old time player quietly stated ... "He'll be back! He's got more brown paper bags stowed away someplace and he loves to play this game! He always plays with cash and never takes a marker or anything else that this casino offers him,"

That's the kind of gambler that I respect.

But sometimes I question the sanity of it all.

I think the more complicating part of the Terry Watanabe story is the issue of the prescription drugs. While there might be some quibbling over the questions of over-serving and such with alcohol, it is fairly hard to argue providing prescription drugs without a prescription is not illegal. The normal common law rule is that you can not sue to profit from your own illegal act.