Woman sued over jackpot payments

Grace Leong

Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

Alicia Clark-Bradley, a Nevada casino jackpot winner, may have collected more funds than she should have received from a $1.1 million jackpot she won in 1998, a lawsuit by a lender alleges.

Bradley -- winner of Casino Data Systems Inc.'s Xtreme Jackpot at the Flamingo Hilton in Reno on Sept. 16, 1998 -- was to have been paid in equal annual installments of $55,245 over 20 years by Casino Data.

But Massachusetts Asset Financing Corp. of Barnstable, Mass., which said it agreed to make two loans totalling $331,500 in 1999 to Bradley on condition that it be repaid by Casino Data, filed breach of contract claims totalling more than $500,000 against the gaming company in U.S. District Court.

The suit said Casino Data was to have wired annually the remaining installment payments owed to Bradley to an escrow account controlled by Massachusetts Asset at Cape Code Bank & Trust Co. in Yarmouth, Mass.

But Casino Data violated the loan agreement allegedly by allowing her to take prepayment of the entire balance of the jackpot proceeds in 2000 after only making two annual installments to the lender, the suit said.

"She got both the loan proceeds and the lump-sum payout. That's more money than she would have received from the jackpot," said Massachusetts Asset's attorney Jeffrey Sylvester, adding he couldn't ascertain the amount of jackpot proceeds Bradley received from Casino Data.

Massachusetts Asset, which said its loans were collaterized against Bradley's rights to the balance of the jackpot payments, said it made the loans to Bradley based on promises of repayment allegedly made by Casino Data's former general counsel Bruce Benson.

The suit said Bradley's current whereabouts are unknown and that she may have "dissipated most or all of the jackpot proceeds such that any attempt to collect the balance of the loan from her is futile."

Casino Data officials could not be reached for comment on the plaintiff's allegations.