When the retired doctor from Austin suddenly began spending big money in Las Vegas, the casinos assigned him a "host" and gave him first-class airfare, hotel suites, meals and shopping trips for his wife, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin.
The casinos even gave him an Alaskan cruise, the lawsuit says.
The retired doctor, Max Wells, kept coming back, the lawsuit says — and kept losing money. By the fall of 2005, Wells had lost $7 million, the lawsuit says. By January, another $7 million.
Now Wells is suing the casinos and a major drug company, claiming that the prescription drugs he was taking for Parkinson's disease set off a compulsive gambling spree.I'm surprised there haven't been more suits like this. How much of casinos' business comes from targeting gambling addicts? Isn't this a moral hazard?
# posted by
Gerry Canavan @ 12:26 AM
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