The late Flip Wilson used to have a character named Geraldine who famously blamed the devil when she would do the sort of things that make Mother Teresa spontaneously combust. This was of course a spoof, and in reality the devil probably has better things to do with his time than force high school teachers to treat their students like sexual veal or inspire middle aged men to spend their 401K accounts on little red sports cars. In reality, the devil has very little to do with our actions - we can get ourselves in plenty of trouble on our own. So if the guy with the pitch fork and pointy tail is not ultimately responsible our misdeeds, how can any reasonable person blame a casino for their gambling losses?
Arelia Margarita Taveras lost over a million dollars at a casino in Atlantic City. Of course in a world where the meaning of the word "is" depends heavily upon who is uttering it, personal responsibility is often an elusive thing. So in the grand tradition of a world run by trial attorneys, Ms. Taveras is suing the casino for not recognizing that she might have a problem.
In the opinion of Ms. Taveras, the casino is completely responsible for her losing enough money to support Britney Spears's prescription habit for a year. The cost of their negligence according to her blame displacing math is a cool $20 million. Of course in a reasonable world her lawsuit has about as much chance of survival as a Twinkie does in Oprah's pantry. Today you never know. If you get the right judge or the right jury, suddenly the casino is responsible for this woman's gambling problem.
Of course this might be good news for any poker player who losses their mortgage if they accidently find themselves at a poker table with Daniel Negreanu or Joe Hachem.
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