Compulsive gambler hits casinos with suit

. -- She was an ambitious lawyer and TV commentator who started going to Atlantic City casinos to relax, and soon was getting high-roller treatment that included limousines whisking her to the resort.

Arelia Margarita Taveras says she was even allowed to bring her dog, Sasha, to the blackjack tables in her purse.

But her gambling spun out of control: She said she would go days at a time at the tables, not eating or sleeping, cleaning her teeth with disposable wipes so she didn’t have to leave.

She says her losses totaled nearly $1 million.

Now she’s chasing perhaps the longest of longshots: a $20-million racketeering lawsuit in federal court against six Atlantic City casinos and one in Las Vegas, claiming they had a duty to notice her compulsive gambling problem and cut her off.

“They knew I was going for days without eating or sleeping,” Taveras said.

“I would pass out at the tables. They had a duty of care to me. Nobody in their right mind would gamble for four or five straight days without sleeping.”

Experts say her case will be difficult to prove, but it provides an unusually detailed window into the life of a problem gambler.

“It’s like crack, only gambling is worse than crack because it’s mental,” said Taveras, 37, a New Yorker who now lives in Minnesota.

She lost her law practice, her apartment and her parents’ home, and she owes the IRS $58,000.

In interviews, Taveras admitted she dipped into her clients’ escrow accounts to finance her gambling habit.

She was disbarred in June and faces criminal charges stemming from those actions, but is trying to work out restitution agreements in order to avoid a prison term.

Her lawsuit names Resorts Atlantic City, Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, the Tropicana Casino Resort, the Showboat Casino Hotel, Bally’s Atlantic City and the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The casinos deny any wrongdoing, maintaining in court papers that Taveras brought her problems on herself.

Last month, a judge dismissed the Trump casinos, the Tropicana, Showboat and Bally’s from the lawsuit on technical grounds, but Taveras is allowed to refile the suit against them by April.

The suit remains in effect against Resorts and MGM because its allegations against them were more specific.

Joe Corbo, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, said casino workers undergo extensive training on spotting problem gamblers and referring them to help, including a self-exclusion list the state maintains.