Court rules casino markers are checks, not debts

David Kravets

Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2001 | 10:05 a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Down-on-their-luck gamblers were dealt a bad hand Monday when a federal appeals court ruled bettors can be prosecuted criminally for not paying casino gambling debts.

A highly indebted Nevada casino gambler unsuccessfully urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to declare his thousands of dollars in unpaid betting debt akin to credit card debt.

Those who don't pay their credit card debt can be sued and can have their credit rating ruined. Those that write bad checks, however, can be prosecuted and incarcerated. That distinction is important because Nevada prosecutors are criminally charging unlucky gamblers for unpaid markers -- credit taken out to gamble in a casino.

Stewart Bell, the Clark County district attorney whose county includes Las Vegas, prosecutes hundreds of people each year for not paying their gambling markers.

"We prosecute bad checks because it's against the law," Bell said.

Douglas County District Attorney Scott Doyle, whose county includes the South Shore resort area of Nevada's Lake Tahoe, agreed with Bell.

Bell and Doyle's offices cover some of the heaviest gambling areas in a state with legalized gaming. They said they treat gamblers' cases no different than those charged for not making good on a check at the local dry cleaners.

Scofflaws face fines and possibly jail or prison terms of between six months and a year or longer, they said.

During a 60-minute hearing in October, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit showed its cards and said it would uphold the gambling marker law as outlined by a federal judge and the Nevada Supreme Court, which said gambling markers are checks.

"They have said what they have said and we will listen to what they have said," Judge Robert R. Beezer said at the time from the bench. The panel echoed that sentiment in its unusually brief opinion Monday.

One of the gambling marker cases concerned Matthew Fleeger, a Dallas gambler who had accumulated unpaid markers in April 1998 totaling about $184,000. He sued Caesars Palace, Clark and Bell alleging that markers aren't negotiable checks or drafts, but are instead IOUs or promissory notes representing a debt owed or a line of credit granted like a credit card.

Fleeger alleged that prosecutors illegally filed criminal complaints to prosecute civil debts and unlawfully issued and circulated arrest warrants in Nevada and other states.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled earlier in Fleeger's case that it was a violation of Nevada's bad check legislation to take out casino markers without sufficient funds to cover them. His ruling upheld a 1983 law approved by the Nevada Legislature to bolster the state's gaming credit collection rate, which dropped in the early 1980s.

Fleeger's attorney, Richard Fine of Los Angeles, said gamblers believe they are getting a line of credit, not writing a blank check, when they get a casino marker. He may sue the casinos for what he termed "a massive fraud perpetrated on the public."

Fine added, "Casinos are saying they are giving credit to the people, but in fact they are not."

Ivan Kallick, a Los Angeles attorney who represented Caesars Palace and other casinos, said if gamblers read the markers they were signing they'd know they were checks.

"Whether the gamblers want to take a second and understand what they are signing is an issue the casino cannot control," Kallick said. "If you look at the marker and what you are signing, it is clear on its face."