Ex-lawyer sues casinos over gambling compulsion By MarketWatch
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - A former lawyer and media commentator who lost nearly $1 million from gambling is claiming in a lawsuit that the casinos at which she played had a duty to notice her compulsion and to stop her, the Associated Press reported.
Arelia Margarita Taveras filed a $20 million racketeering suit in U.S. District Court in New Jersey. The suit names six casinos in New Jersey and one in Las Vegas as defendants.
Taveras told AP that the casinos' staffers saw her gambling for days without eating or sleeping and that "they had a duty of care to me."
The casinos deny that they did anything wrong. AP reported that the casinos responded to the lawsuit by saying that Taveras caused her own problems.
Attorneys told AP that Taveras, a New Yorker who now works at a call center in Minnesota, would have a difficult time proving her allegations.
The news service also quoted Arnie Wexler, a former head of the Council on Compulsive Gambling in New Jersey, as saying that gambling
"is the most powerful addiction you can have without putting something into your body."