Gambler Seeks Payoff of Her Life

When the house keeps winning - sue the house! Arelia Margarita Taveras, a formerly successful attorney and TV commentator, is planning the ultimate gamers' revenge. After years of binges in Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos where she first started going for weekend relaxation, Taveras has found herself disbarred, disgraced, and disillusioned as a result of her habit leading her to dip into clients' money to fuel her habit. She claims her obsession brought her to losses of nearly $1 million.

It's All Your Fault
In the style of spilled coffee lawsuits against McDonalds and "your dog bit me" claims by would-be burglars, Taveras is hoping to get rich quick - this time through legal claims of negligence by casinos for not stepping in and interceding to protect her from herself. The plaintiff says that she would spend four to five days at casino tables without eating or sleeping, using disposable wipes to brush her teeth so that she wouldn't have to leave the table.

Racketeering is the charge. Taveras claims the casinos were criminal in allowing her to continue, knowing the state that she was in. "I would pass out at the tables. They had a duty of care to me. Nobody in their right mind would gamble for four or five straight days without sleeping," she says.

Precedent, or Lack There Of
Earlier in March, Graham Calvert, an Englishman, has seen his similar lawsuit rejected by the court in the UK. In the Calvert case, which is similar to Taveras' charges, but on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean nonetheless, the judge ruled that in Calvert's case, his gambling pathology would have led him to financial ruin had the casino prevented him from excessive gambling or not.

With her $20 million suit representing her last chance to get back in the game, perhaps Arelia Taveras has not exactly learned her lesson yet. If she can pull this off however, she will have beaten the house indeed. Beaten it like the family mule.