Lawyer Lunch » litigation http://lawyerlunch.com Real Law. Real Life. Real Tasty. Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:36:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Gambling Website Founder Pleads Guilty, Forfeits Millions http://lawyerlunch.com/gambling-website-founder-pleads-guilty-forfeits-millions/ http://lawyerlunch.com/gambling-website-founder-pleads-guilty-forfeits-millions/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:12:01 +0000 Brian Karpf http://lawyerlunch.com/?p=99 Gary Kaplan, founder of the popular gambling website betonsports.com, has plead guilty to federal rackateering conspiracy and related charges. He is also forking over 43.6 million bucks. His company, founded in 1995, handles nearly $2 billion in bets every year.

Kaplan and his posse also allegedly told gamblers that its operations were legal, and told them they could withdraw funds at any time. What were they gonna say, “don’t gamble here: it’s illegal, immoral, and we probably won’t pay out if you win”?

Betonsports, which was based in Costa Rica, stopped its operating ins 2006, with its customer base having lost over $16 million. Most people know that online gambling and sports betting is illegal, yet take their chances and hope to (A) win big, and (B) actually get paid on their winnings. Yet, what do you do in the event that you attempt to make a withdrawal but never receive the funds? There won’t be much recourse, at least not in the U.S.

Hey, maybe that’s Obama’s next plan to help the country: gold for gambling-losses.

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]]> http://lawyerlunch.com/gambling-website-founder-pleads-guilty-forfeits-millions/feed/ 0 Wife Smoked like Chimney, Husband Awarded $1.9 Million http://lawyerlunch.com/wife-smoked-like-chimney-husband-awarded-1-9-million/ http://lawyerlunch.com/wife-smoked-like-chimney-husband-awarded-1-9-million/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:55:51 +0000 Brian Karpf http://lawyerlunch.com/?p=95 A 92 year-old Florida man was awarded $1.9 million in compensatory damages for the death of his Wife, who smoked 2 packs-a-day since she was 16. The Marlboro-preferring lady died of lung cancer in her 70′s. The jury actually found damages of $5.3 million, but that tobacco bigwig and cigarette maker Phillip-Morris was only 36.5% at fault. The other 63.5% was attributed to the lady’s choice and desire to continue smoking. You think?

This case came after the Florida Supreme Court decertified a class-action suit, leaving thousands of individual plaintiffs. To streamline things a bit, the Court adopted some factional findings from the precedent Engle case, so that they “don’t have to start from square one in each of these cases,” said Ed Sweda, a lawyer for the Tobacco Products Liability Project in Boston, Massachusetts.

There are still over 150 similar Engle cases pending.

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