Franklin Circuit Court Judge allows Kentucky to treble his earlier $290 million damages award
Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate hit the headlines again Wednesday, granting the Commonwealth of Kentucky's request for triple damages on the $290 million award he made against Pokerstars and parent Amaya Gaming in November (see previous InfoPowa reports).
That could see the two online gambling companies saddled with a total of $870 million…and that's not counting the exorbitant 12 percent interest a year that Judge Wingate tacked on for good measure.
InfoPowa readers will recall that the case turns on a 1942 state law that allows third parties to claim amounts lost to illegal gambling if the actual losers have not claimed within a specific timeframe. Working on a contingency basis, the state's legal representatives came up with a potentially lucrative wheeze to exploit the law by going after Pokerstars in respect of its activities in Kentucky between 2006 and 2010.
Amaya, which is to appeal the judge's finding, has already produced numbers from its records showing that the amounts deposited by Kentucky players over that period are nowhere near Judge Wingate's $290 million award, let alone the punitive tripling of the amount just granted.
Judge Wingate has ruled consistently against Pokerstars through several court actions, and is still deliberating a request from the Poker Players Alliance to join the action in order to ensure that any award goes into the losing players' pockets and not the state coffers.
UPDATE
Amaya has issued a statement on Judge Wingate's latest punitive award, with the gambling group's general counsel, Marlon Goldstein, describing the trebling of the earlier award as "absurd."
"This is a frivolous and egregious misuse of an antiquated state statute to enrich the contingent-fee plaintiff's attorneys hired by the Commonwealth and not the people of Kentucky," the statement observes.
"Given that PokerStars only generated gross revenues of approximately US$18 million from Kentucky customers during the five years at issue, a damages award in excess of US$800 million is notable only for its absurdity."
Amaya has already said it will appeal the matter and plans to raise both factual and legal errors that include breaches of state and federal constitutions.
Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa
