From casinos in New York to Charles Barkley’s contempt for player props, there was a lot of big gaming news this past week. We’ll start off with Paul Pierce’s poker debt, which has landed him in the midst of a lawsuit.
Paul Pierce Hit With Lawsuit After Refusing To Pay Poker Game Loan
Paul Pierce, one of the many great NBA players over the years, has found himself in some hot water. Pierce is being sued after refusing to pay back a loan that he received in order to participate in a private poker
game. He had lost heavily during in that outing and now owes a six-figure debt.
Stephen Carmona is the man who has pursued this lawsuit. He said that he hosted a poker game back in January with Pierce asking for a loan in order to play. Carmona gave him $150,000 that Pierce promised to return within the same week. Pierce then proceeded to lose $140,000 of the money, only returning $10,000 when the night was over.
When Pierce returned for another poker night, again asking for a loan, Carmona gave him another $40,000 – assuming that he’s good for it. This brings his total owed money up to $180,000 and Carmona is seeking interest as well.
It’s unclear what Pierce’s financial situation is or what his side of the story is here. Many estimate his net worth north of $50 million, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue to pay down a couple of hundred thousand. We’ll have to wait to hear his side of it in court.
Charles Barkley Isn’t A Fan Of In-Game Props
NBA legend Charles Barkley has a serious disdain for in-game sports betting props.
He recently spoken out about his concern for these in-game prop bets – even though he’s an ambassador for FanDuel. He said that there shouldn’t be wagers that are taking place during the game. An example of this that he brought up was regarding free throws and people betting on players to make or miss them.
Barkley himself has admitted to losing millions of dollars from gambling in the past, so he knows a thing or two about betting. He believes that these in-game props are going to wind up creating more gambling addictions than ever before.
Charles has said in 2006 that he had a gambling problem that he needed to get under control. At one point, he was betting as much as $20,000 a hand when he took trips to the casinos. Barkley also said that he once lost $2.5 million in just a few hours. He’s not one to mince words but in this case, his prop-bet feedback is likely to fall on deaf ears as bettors love these types of wagers.
New York Governor Open To Any Options For Casinos
Originally, it looked like the state of New York was going to limit casinos but now they appear to be expanding their horizons. Governor Kathy Hochul recently said that she doesn’t have a preference for where the casinos are going to be built but she does want to see more of them. According to her, the state is currently in the process of taking in all the information that they can before a decision is made.
There are three casinos that are planned to be built in the downstate region – maybe inside New York City. This isn’t entirely surprising considering that their online sports betting market just opened back in January and is doing quite well. They have brought in nearly $2 billion in handle throughout the first 30 days.
Along with these retail casinos and online sports betting, there has been a push for online casinos also. They unfortunately weren’t able to make it live in 2022 but there is no doubt that it could come along sooner rather than later.
