Trials & Litigation
Once-Prominent Lawyer Sues Casinos for Gambling Addiction
Posted Mar 10, 2008, 06:48 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A former lawyer and TV commentator has sued seven casinos for failing to stop her compulsive gambling that led to $1 million in losses and the end of her law practice.
Arelia Margarita Taveras once earned $500,000 a year, but she lost her New York practice and her law license for skimming $99,000 from the escrow accounts of four real-estate and divorce clients to finance her gambling habit, report the Associated Press and the New York Post. Criminal charges are still pending. At one time she represented victims of a 2001 New York airline crash that killed 265 people.
Taveras is seeking $20 million from six casinos in Atlantic City and one in Las Vegas that gave her high-roller treatment, offering her limousine rides and allowing her to bring her dog inside in her purse. She claims she would stay at the tables for days without sleeping and eating, using disposable wipes to brush her teeth.
"They knew I was going for days without eating or sleeping,” she told AP. “They had a duty of care to me."
In one five-day period in June 2005, casino staffers brought her glasses of orange juice and Snickers bars while she stayed at the tables until the point of exhaustion. A dealer finally told her to go home, says the suit, filed in New Jersey federal court. Taveras now works as a call center operator in Minnesota.
Taveras says gambling wasn’t even fun. "It creeps up on you, the impulse. It's a sickness," she told AP. It’s "worse than crack because it's mental."
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Posted by kay sieverding - 7 months, 4 days, 5 hours ago
What about compulsive judges?
“Chief federal judge investigated for alleged involvement with prostitutes”
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=87702
“The driver told 9NEWS he took prostitutes to meet Judge Nottingham at two locations in the Denver area about 10 times during the summer of 2007.
One of those locations is a condo in Denver listed as the residence of Edward Nottingham III, the judge’s adult son. The son’s name is listed on the condo directory at 1489 Steele Street, apartment #307, Denver.
The driver says the prostitutes would mention Judge Nottingham by name before and after their appointments with him and frequently referred to the judge by his nickname: “Naughty.”
The driver described one conversation with a prostitute about Nottingham. “She was like, well, ‘It’s Naughty.’ I said, ‘Who’s that?’ She said, ‘A federal judge.’ She said, ‘He’s on some big trials and stuff like that.’”
The driver also told 9NEWS he met the judge in person, then later looked him up on the Internet and saw his picture.
The driver says he saw Judge Nottingham outside the condo complex on Steele Street interacting with the prostitutes several times.
“They always seemed pretty affectionate, you would almost think they were a couple by the way that they acted together,” the driver told 9NEWS. “They would hug each other and almost kiss on the cheek and then they would go inside.”
The driver says the women returned from their meeting with the judge with $300 or $400 in cash per visit. “
Posted by Bruce Eden, Civil Rights Director, Dads Against Di - 7 months, 4 days, 2 hours, 42 minutes ago
This lawyer was anti-father and wrote a book on how to go after so-called “deadbeat dads”. It’s too bad that the courts and legal industry created this child support hysteria fraud, because the children suffer when their fathers are systematically “parentectomied” from them because of federal reimbursement incentive funding for child support, and profit and greed by lawyers.
This lawyer is now claiming she is a “victim”. Typical female response when they commit crimes. I guess she’ll blame her father, boyfriend, husband, uncle or whomever for her woes.
This lawyer deserves what she gets. She attempted to screw men with a book. She paid for it dearly. What goes around, comes around.
Posted by Alice - 7 months, 3 days, 3 hours, 24 minutes ago
Mr. Eden,
Unfortunately, the reality IS that too many fathers do NOT pay child support. Rights of visitation should not be connected to payment of child support, but it makes sense that if a father loves his child(ren) and wants to have visitation he should also want to help to provide for the basic needs of his child(ren). Your issue has nothing to do with the gambling addiction problem, which is a very real problem for many individuals and their families.
Posted by disgusted - 7 months, 2 days, 23 hours, 21 minutes ago
Ridiculous - what legal principle is this suit based on? Did the casino’s readiness to continue making money legally off this poor, poor soul directly contribute to her decision to steal? If she hadn’t been caught skimming, does anyone honestly think she’d be suing?
Anyone know if there is a precedent where an addict has successfully held a legal supplier responsible for their own personal failures? An alcoholic suing Budweiser for lost wages? An obese person suing the company that makes Doritios because they can’t walk comfortably any more?
This is disgusting.
Posted by Mary - 7 months, 1 day, 3 hours, 3 minutes ago
"It’s a sickness”? Oh, please. Diabetes is a sickness. Cancer is a sickness.
Gambling is a choice. If a person knows that she is likely to “stay at the tables for days without sleeping and eating, using disposable wipes to brush her teeth[,]” then she has a duty of care to herself to avoid putting herself in that situation.
Life is choices. People who choose unwisely should be grown-up about it and take responsibility for their unwise decisions rather than blaming another party.