PokerStars To Appeal $870M Kentucky RulingCompany: Appeal Process To Begin Next Month |
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Amaya Gaming announced that it will be appealing a $870 million judgement in Kentucky, saying that the damages award “is notable only for its absurdity.”
Last week a judge in the state ruled that PokerStars should pay Kentucky the massive sum for allowing roughly 34,000 Kentuckians to spend money on the site from late 2006 to April 2015. PokerStars stopped allowing Americans to play when the federal government indicted its founders. Americans were cashed out their account balances.
Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate said that PokerStars willfully violated Kentucky anti-gambling laws during the period. PokerStars settled its case with the federal government in 2012 for nearly $731 million without admitting to any wrongdoing.
Thanks to the settlement, which included PokerStars acquiring former rival Full Tilt Poker, the company was able to fetch $4.9 billion in its sale to Amaya.
Amaya said in a statement that it will be turning to the founders of the world’s largest poker site if the Kentucky judgement isn’t successfully appealed.
“Regardless of the dollar amount, to the extent the PokerStars entities may be ultimately obligated to pay any amounts following exhaustion of all appeals and other legal remedies, Amaya intends to seek recovery against the former owners of the PokerStars business,” the Canadian gaming systems manufacturer said.
Amaya does believe that the lawsuit is completely without merit, especially considering that Kentuckians spent far, far less than $870 million on PokerStars during the period.
“This is a frivolous and egregious misuse of an antiquated state statute to enrich the contingent-fee plaintiff’s attorneys hired by the Commonwealth and not the people of Kentucky,” said Marlon Goldstein, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and General Counsel of Amaya. “Given that PokerStars only generated gross revenues of approximately US$18 million from Kentucky customers during the five years at issue, a damages award in excess of US$800 million is notable only for its absurdity.”
The appeal process will begin in January, Amaya said.
The company added in its statement: “To bring the action, Kentucky relied on a centuries old statute that was intended to allow individuals who incurred gaming losses to sue their opponents; it was never intended to authorize the Commonwealth to sue and collect such losses for its own benefit. In fact, no other state in the union has brought an action under this type of antiquated statute to recover alleged gaming losses in the name of a state.”
PokerStars was ordered to pay 12 percent in interest until it forks over $870 million.
Though Kentucky has issue with PokerStars, the state of New Jersey said this fall that it doesn’t. The Garden State gave a gaming license to PokerStars and Full Tilt. Amaya said that PokerStars will launch there sometime in the first half of 2016.
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