Court Rules Against Gambler In Marker CaseConviction Stands Against Harel Zahavi |
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Nevada’s Supreme Court decided to rule against an appeal by a gambler who says that he didn’t commit a felony when failing to repay the money casinos loaned him to gamble with.
California ice cream businessman Harel Zahavi was convicted in 2011 of defrauding the Venetian, the Palazzo, Hard Rock and Caesars Palace out of $384,000 in total. Specifically, he was said to have "passed bad checks.” The crimes were felonies, and he originally was sentenced to one to four years in prison, in addition to fines. His sentence was eventually changed to four years of probation, in addition to repaying the money.
Attorneys for Zahavi argued Nevada was punishing debtors with prison, which is in violation of the U.S. Constitution. They maintain he didn’t defraud the casinos.
The defense also argued that the casinos knew he couldn’t repay and that he had a gambling addiction. There was testimony that he did tell a casino he was broke and owed money across town, but he was still given more money to play with. The documents he signed did have fine print that warned Nevada casinos could pursue not just civil but criminal charges if he failed to repay the markers. In his defense, Zahavi said his English wasn’t strong enough to read this information.
Despite the defense’s arguments, the conviction still stands.
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