Lawyer Takes on Her Host Casinos

Imagine being stranded on an island without eating for days, brushing your teeth with the disposable wipes you carry in your bag. Distracted by the cards in your hand, the idea of sleep is long forgotten and the sounds of the slot machines surrounding you are a mere high pitch ring you learn to ignore.

This was exactly what former lawyer and TV commentator, Arelia Margarita Taveras, had experienced in a few casinos in Atlantic City she is suing for the not-too-shabby amount of $20 million. Taveras claims that the casinos, six in Atlantic City and one in Las Vegas, failed to stop her compulsive gambling that led to a miserable chain of events.

Actions Speak Loud
One of these events included the end of her professional career.

Taveras was found taking $99,000 from escrow accounts for real estate and divorce clients in order to fund her addiction.

Due to this act of impulse, Taveras now works as a call-centre operator in Minnesota.

A Casino-Style Welcome
According to Taveras, the seven casinos treated her as a high roller - fulfilling her desire to gamble. With limousine rides, special privileges and free drinks, would you want to leave the game you love and makes all this possible?

Although the casinos were pretentiously and materialistically paying Traveras to stay put, they did notice her lack of eating and did something about it. The waitresses would occasionally bring glasses of orange juice and Snickers bars when they would see Taveras at the point of exhaustion, which surely explains her poor performance at the card tables.

"They knew I was going for days without eating or sleeping," Taveras told Associated Press. "They had a duty of care to me."

When to Draw the Line
Such cases clearly must be resolved. Just as a bartender shares responsibility with the client to stop serving drinks at a certain point, the casinos may have to set similar guidelines.

Will the Taveras case help draw attention to this issue?