Arelia Taveras

Plaintiffs continue to get nowhere in trying to hold casinos liable for compulsive gambling, but in a first-of-its-kind verdict a Minnesota jury awarded $8.2 million to a man who blamed a Parkinson's Disease drug for causing his gambling problem.

A New Jersey judge this week underscored the futility of suing casinos for failing to restrain compulsive gamblers in a $20 million case brought by an attorney. Arelia Taveras, who suffered nearly $1 million in gambling losses, alleged that six Atlantic City casinos and one in Las Vegas had a duty to save her from herself.

“[T]he defendants' failure/omission to act in a reasonably prudent manner after discovering that plaintiff was a compulsive gambler ... was the proximate cause of the damages suffered by the plaintiff,” Taveras said in a pro per complaint filed a year ago.

In 1995, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found casinos are not responsible for the gambling losses of intoxicated patrons. Hakimoglu v. Trump Taj Mahal Assoc., 70 F.3d 291. And U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb refused to endorse Taveras's “extreme position” that casinos have a duty to “stop sober casino patrons who are gambling too much.”

“Plaintiff’s theory would, in effect, have no limit,” she said in an opinion dismissing the case. “For example, if adopted by this Court, her theory would impose a duty on shopping malls and credit-card companies to identify and exclude compulsive shoppers. This Court will not sacrifice common sense and stretch the common-law duty of care as Plaintiff urges.”

Taveras also argued that the casinos were strictly liable for her injuries because gambling is an “abnormally dangerous activity.” Bumb quickly disposed of that theory:

Playing blackjack, roulette, or the slots bears no likeness to dumping toxic waste into environmentally sensitive areas, demolition of buildings in populated areas, and transportation of highly flammable substances.

But the legal outlook appears to be more positive for plaintiffs who allege the Parkinson's Disease drug Mirapex drove them to gambling addiction. The cases of 58 Mirapex users against the drug's manufacturers, Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer, were consolidated in Minnesota and a jury this summer awarded Guy Charbonneau $8.2 million in the first case to go to trial.

Charbonneau prevailed on all three of his claims, which alleged strict liability for defective design and manufacture, a negligent failure to warn of the risks of pathological gambling, and misrepresenting to the public that Mirapex is safe. The verdict included $394,300 in compensatory damages for Charbonneau, $85,000 in loss of consortium damages for his wife, and a whopping $7.8 million in punitive damages.

Boehringer Ingelheim has denied there is any “causal relationship” between Mirapex and compulsive gambling. And one commenter on the verdict said it was “deeply embarrassing to the civil justice system. It has no scientific validity, nor any logic ...”

But a recent study of more than 3,000 Parkinson's patients found that those on dopamine agonists –- the class of drugs to which Mirapex belongs –- are nearly three times more likely to have at least one impulse-control disorder, including gambling addiction, compared to those receiving other treatments.

Charbonneau claimed to have lost more than $260,000 in gambling between March 2002 and February 2006. He filed his complaint in March 2006.

Taveras, meanwhile, says on her website that she will appeal the dismissal of her case. "A serious miscarriage of justice has occurred here," she wrote in a letter to Chief Judge Garrett E. Brown.

The Indiana Court of Appeals last week heard oral arguments in a similar case filed by a woman who blames a casino for luring her to spend $125,000 while knowing she was addicted to gambling.

By Matthew Heller
9/25/08