Woman And Casino Sue Each Other

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ELIZABETH, Ind. — Jenny Kephart's fondness for the blackjack table took her to a world of private jet rides, her own table and dealer in casinos, and lavish hotel suites where iced champagne awaited her arrival.
"My every whim," recalled Kephart, 52, a woman from suburban Nashville, who admits she was a compulsive gambler. She says she has lost more than $900,000 at casinos across the country.
Eventually, her gambling brought her to Caesars Indiana in Harrison County, Ind., and put her deep in debt. Now she is at the center of a court case that tests whether a casino has a duty to protect an addicted gambler from him- or herself.
The casino filed a civil suit against Kephart in January for failing to repay $125,000 she borrowed during a visit in March 2006 to the Harrah's-owned riverboat, a company that had been making her special offers for years.
Kephart, who is unemployed, is fighting back with a counterclaim alleging Caesars enticed her with giveaways and made money for gambling available to her, even though trained casino workers should have identified her as a problem gambler. She said casino executives knew she had come out of bankruptcy four years earlier when Harrah's was one of her creditors.



Caesars' lawyer, Stephen Langdon, argued that Kephart never asked to be banned from the casino or other Harrah's properties, so the casino had no way to know she was a problem gambler. Caesars argued that Kephart's counterclaim should be dismissed. A ruling could come in a month.
Kephart's lawyer, Terry Noffsinger of Evansville, says pathological gambling is widely viewed as a mental illness. He argued that Caesars representatives took "affirmative steps to persuade her to gamble" by calling her at home.
In similar cases, Indiana courts have held that casino operators don't have to prevent customers from gambling and consequently aren't responsible for their losses.
Noffsinger stressed that the law is not fully settled in cases involving problem gambling.
"If she had just gone in (to Caesars) on her own, that would be one thing," he said. He will try to prove casino officials knew Kephart was an addicted gambler and they pursued her because she had money to spare from a $1 million family inheritance she received in 2004.
The casino lawyers declined to comment further.
Indiana gambling regulations allow casinos to lend money to people they deem credit-worthy. Noffsinger previously represented Evansville resident and professed gambling addict David Williams in a federal lawsuit in which the precedent that casinos have no duty to protect a compulsive gambler from himself was upheld.
California lawyer I. Nelson Rose, a gambling law expert, said he believes the court precedent is well-established. He said wealthy gamblers are offered credit of several hundreds of thousands of dollars, so Caesars' decision to lend Kephart large sums is not unusual.
Noffsinger said Kephart's case is different because Caesars sued her first and the casino invited her to visit.




http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-03-gambler_N.htm

GO READ SOME OF THE COMMENTS..........
 

head turd in the outhouse
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"At least it's not another Mike Vick story"




fcuking classic. LOL
 

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