“The longer they play, the more they lose. In the end, we get it all.”
Posted on 05/15/2008 12:58:54 PM PDT by mojito
Wynn Las Vegas filed a lawsuit in District Court on Wednesday to force former National Basketball Association star Charles Barkley to pay back $400,000 in gambling markers the casino alleges it extended him last year.
The casino also persuaded the Clark County district attorney’s bad check unit to open a criminal investigation. The unit has authority under state law to investigate gambling debts in the same manner as bad checks.
District Attorney David Roger said Barkley will be notified of the investigation and given an opportunity to make restitution to Wynn Las Vegas to avoid being charged with a felony.
“We prosecute cases like this every day,” Roger said. “Mr. Barkley will be treated the same as everybody else.”
Barkley has been appearing as a studio analyst on the cable TV network TNT, which is airing the NBA playoffs. Efforts to reach him at the TNT studios in Atlanta late Wednesday were unsuccessful.
In a May 2006 ESPN interview, Barkley acknowledged he had a gambling problem, estimating his losses totaled $10 million.
Lawyers for Wynn Las Vegas declined to comment. But in its four-page lawsuit, the resort said it had extended four $100,000 markers to Barkley, two each on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19, that have not been paid back.
“By taking the $400,000 in credit and refusing to pay the amount despite repeated attempts, Barkley has wrongfully exercised dominion and control over Wynn’s property,” the suit said. “Barkley has exercised this dominion in derogation, exclusion and defiance of Wynn’s rights in its property.”
The suit, signed by Kimmarie Sinatra, general counsel for Wynn Resorts, the parent company of Wynn Las Vegas, also seeks attorneys fees, court costs and interest on the $400,000 from Barkley, whom it identifies as a resident of Arizona.
Barkley, voted the NBA’s most valuable player in 1993 as a member of the Phoenix Suns, is a frequent Las Vegas visitor. In a February 2007 interview with a Phoenix TV station, he claimed to have won $700,000 in one weekend on the Strip, mostly from blackjack and betting on the Super Bowl.
The 13-time NBA All-Star also has not been shy about discussing his struggles with gambling.
“It’s just a stupid habit that I’ve got to get under control, because it’s just not a good thing to be broke after all of these years,” Barkley was quoted as saying in his 2006 ESPN interview.
When questioned after the ESPN interview on his own TNT basketball show, Barkley talked about the frustrations of trying to beat the house in Las Vegas.
“But I’ve got to understand you can’t beat the casino,” he said. “You might win a lot of money from them, but in the long run they are going to win more money from you, and I’ve got to get to a point where I don’t gamble for as much.”
Class act as always that Charlie B...
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy... /sarc
“The longer they play, the more they lose. In the end, we get it all.”
Now that some real rocket science there!!!
He’s pretty casual about his own money. Imagine what his attitude will be once he gets in office, as he has mentioned in the past he’d like to do, and gets his mitts on taxpayer money.
Well, at least he is not a role model...
Unfortunately, he also lost $1,400,000 that same weekend...
You always remember winning, and never remember losing...
I found this a bit interesting.
Here’s all you need to know about casino gambling:
Blackjack is the one game where a player can exercise skill to overcome the house’s inherent advantage, primarily by counting cards. What happens if you’re a card counter and win a lot of money? they kick you out of the casino and blacklist you. Not for cheating, which you are not doing. Just for beating them at their own game.
He’s such a windbag.
If he was a nobody, Tony and Vito would visit him and have a heart to heart.
Something tells me Sir Charles has much more than $400K in current gambling debts.
His broadcasting and endorsement deals means he still has a very good income coming in, unlike most pro-athletes who retire and do nothing. He’s probably blowing through it faster than he can make it.
If he was a nobody, he wouldn’t get a 400k marker...
“If he was a nobody, he wouldn’t get a 400k marker.”
True. I always dreamed of walking up to a craps table and dropping $5M in cash (stopping the action), and telling the stick man to put it on the one roll 12. At 30:1 they’d have to call upstairs to take the bet. By the time they take the bet (which they always will) and before they push the dice to the shooter - take it down and walk out.
Can mortgage companies do this to people who walk away from their Vegas houses that they can’t pay for anymore?
update:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/nba/05/15/barkley.gambling.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
Barkley says he’ll repay debt to Las Vegas casino after felony threat
The hotel was racist.
Chuckie’s lucky he’s messing with Steve Wynn’s Vegas rather than Bugsy Siegal’s Vegas.
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