Judge rejects Caesars' bid to dismiss addiction lawsuit

September 30, 2007 08:01 pm

— CORYDON, Ind. (AP) — A judge has rejected Caesars Indiana’s request to dismiss a Tennessee woman’s lawsuit claiming the casino exploited her gambling addiction.
Harrison Circuit Judge H. Lloyd Whitis’ ruling in the case brought by Jenny Kephart could open the door to a trial examining a casino’s responsibilities toward compulsive gamblers.
Whitis did not explain why he denied Caesars’ motion for dismissal Friday.
Kephart, 52, of suburban Nashville, Tenn., countersued Caesars in May after the casino sued her to recover $125,000 that she had lost in a single night of gambling in 2006.
Kephart has admitted losing more than $900,000 at casinos owned by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which owns Caesars.
Her complaint alleges Caesars knew that she had received a $1 million inheritance and enticed her with free meals and rooms and provided money on credit for her to gamble, despite knowing she was a compulsive gambler.
Kephart’s lawyer, Terry Noffsinger of Evansville, has said Caesars executives also knew that Kephart had gone through bankruptcy four years earlier, when parent Harrah’s was one of her creditors.
Caesars’ lawyer, Steven P. Langdon of New Albany, declined to comment on the ruling.
Indiana courts have shown little sympathy to gamblers who insist that casinos should be liable for their losses, ruling in similar cases that casino operators don’t have to prevent customers from gambling.
Langdon had argued in written briefs and during a hearing before Whitis in August that Caesars employees had no way to know that Kephart was addicted to gambling because she didn’t ask to be placed on a self-exclusion list allowing gamblers to have themselves banned from casinos.
In Indiana, 2,097 gamblers have requested self exclusion — for periods of one year, five years or life — since the program began in July 2004, according to Indiana Gaming Commission reports.