Wealthy Gambler Makes Creative Legal Arguments to Defend Nonpayment of $1.2 Million Debt to Casino
Jerome Powers, CEO and co-chairman of Plum TV, refuses to pay the $1.2 million he owes a Connecticut casino.
Powers appears “to be swimming in dough,” ABC News reports. But like so many gamblers, he welshed on his debt. Powers amassed the debt while playing blackjack at the Mohegan Sun approximately two years ago, according to the news organization. The casino is owned by the Pequot Indians.
The Mohegans have relied on Connecticut’s courts to get their money back, ABC News says. Meanwhile, Powers pleaded his case with a series of creative legal arguments. In January, a judge in New London “ruled that the Pequots could attach Powers’ assets to the tune of $1.2 million,” ABC News reports.
In court papers, Powers first said he refused to pay his gambling debts on principle, asserting that in the state of Connecticut, the marker extended to him by the casino as credit constituted an illegal contract, ABC News says. He then argued that as the casino is located on an Indian reservation, which has the status of a sovereign nation, the state of Connecticut has no legal weight in the case, the news organization adds.
Powers “is only one of a growing number of gamblers resorting to inventive legal means to repudiate their debts.” ABC News says. The news organization notes how some gamblers are accusing casinos of enabling their behavior. In one of two other cases outlined by ABC News, a woman is accusing an Indiana casino of luring her to the tables with free lodgings, food and limo rides. The woman, who says the casino knew of her gambling problem, owes the establishment $125,000.
