Venetian: Company owes $173,550 after poker tourney canceled

By Steve Green

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 | 11:36 a.m.

Poker tournament organizer Hall of Fame World Poker Championship LLC was sued by the owner of the Venetian resort in Las Vegas on Monday over an allegedly unpaid invoice.

Venetian Casino Resort LLC filed suit in Clark County District Court. Las Vegas Sands Corp. owns the integrated Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.

The lawsuit says Atlanta-based Hall of Fame World Poker Championship last year booked hotel suites and conference space and arranged for food and beverage services.

The number of suites booked varied daily between 20 and 41, the booking contract shows.

The bookings were for July 11 through July 18 of this year for an event called the Sports Legends Challenge, court records show.

But the defendant failed to pay a deposit of $25,808 and later canceled the event, the Venetian suit says.

The cancellation triggered a cancellation fee agreed to in the contract of $155,625, which, with 18 percent interest through Friday, has grown to $173,550, the lawsuit says.

Despite receiving invoices and demand letters from the Venetian, Hall of Fame has failed to pay that amount, the lawsuit alleges.

A message seeking comment on the allegations was left Tuesday with Hall of Fame Chief Executive Bruce Bibbero.

In press releases on the Sports Legends Challenge Web site, the inaugural tournament was announced not for Las Vegas, but for Sept. 14-17 at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

For undisclosed reasons, the event this month didn't happen.

Bibbero said in a press release the inaugural Sports Legends Challenge will be rescheduled for a new location and dates in 2010. The location and dates are being finalized, the Sept. 3 press release says.

The Web site indicates the event will involve entrants playing against sports legends and poker professionals.

Hall of Fame and Bibbero, in the meantime, remain engaged in litigation with Sludikoff Gaming Tournements Inc. of Las Vegas.

In lawsuits filed in Clark County District Court last year and this year, Sludikoff and Hall of Fame accused each other of wrongdoing when plans for a new celebrity poker tournament fell apart.

The litigation is pending, court records show.

CORRECTION: The spelling of Sludikoff, which was misspelled in the story as it was originally published, has been changed. The Sun regrets the error. | (September 29, 2009)