High-roller files new suit against Park Place

By Liz Benston (contact)

Friday, June 20, 2003 | 11 a.m.

A high-rolling gambler whose $8 million jury verdict against Park Place Entertainment Corp. last year was thrown out by a federal judge has filed a new lawsuit in state court against the casino giant.

Steven Mattes, a Los Angeles-area businessman who claims Park Place defrauded him out of millions of dollars in gambling debts when he had won money instead, also has filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas for the judge to reconsider the ruling.

The state suit, filed in Clark County District Court last week, also names as defendants the state Gaming Control Board, Park Place's external auditor Deloitte & Touche, Hilton Hotels Corp. as well as certain Park Place employees.

Last year's federal case centered on Mattes' gambling activity during opening weekend at Park Place's Paris Las Vegas resort in September 1999. A jury sided with the gambler's claim that Park Place committed fraud by creating casino markers that were unsigned, forged or otherwise incorrect and that the company allegedly fudged accounting documents to show losses instead of winnings. Park Place argued that its accounting records are accurate.

In the new suit, Mattes claims Park Place and Hilton generated additional markers totaling more than $10 million that he paid but never signed over the course of previous gambling trips to the company's Las Vegas Hilton resort since 1987.

The Hilton hotel chain spun off its gaming business, including the Las Vegas Hilton, in 1998.

The move was part of a scheme by Park Place to defraud high-rollers and "generate sorely needed cash flow" and received the cooperation of the Control Board and casino auditor Deloitte & Touche, the suit said.

Park Place has rejected the charges.

"Mr. Mattes has concocted a grand conspiracy theory in order to blame his gambling losses on everyone but himself," Park Place spokesman Robert Stewart said.

The Control Board acted properly in the Mattes dispute, officials with the Nevada attorney general's office said. Officials for Deloitte & Touche could not be reached for comment.

In a post-trial hearing, U.S. District Court Judge James C. Mahan said the verdict contained several flaws. The defamation charge wasn't proven in court, while the jury apparently arbitrarily chose an award for fraud that didn't relate back to the specific evidence at hand, Mahan said. Punitive damages also were decided upon along with the other charges rather than considered after the fact, a violation of court procedure, he said.