The San Jose Sharks’ Evander Kane has made a name for himself on the ice as a premier NHL player. He has also been in the spotlight for his casino play in Las Vegas. So much so, that he became the central figure in a lawsuit that claimed he owed payment on a $500,000 marker.
The casino involved with the case was The Cosmopolitan. It claimed that it gave Kane eight lines of credit from $20,000 to $100,000 on April 15, 2019. It also claims that Kane never paid them back. The initial lawsuit, in this case, was filed last November. Kane was in town last April as part of a playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Cosmopolitan was seeking repayment of the $500,000 in credit. It was also suing Kane for legal costs associated with the case. The player signed a $48 million contact extension with San Jose in 2018. His salary for this season is an estimated $8 million.
Lawrence Semenza was the attorney representing The Cosmopolitan. He did comment to the Review-Journal that the case had been dropped. He did not comment on whether it was settled out of court.
It was stated that Kane may have been looking to blow off some steam at The Cosmo last April 15. The Sharks were beaten 5-0 by the Knights. Kane had been given a major game misconduct penalty . He dropped Vegas defenseman Colin Miller with an illegal left hook in the losing effort.
The NHL and the casino industry have had other run-ins in the past. Last July, the Ottawa Senators’ owner Eugene Melnyk had his legal issues with a Connecticut-based casino. The Mohegan Sun launched a $1.05 million legal claim against him.
The casino claimed that Melnyk issued five bank drafts totaling $900,000. This was done to fund a St. Patrick’s Day gambling spree in 2017. The billionaire’s bank allegedly failed to honor those drafts.
The team also contends that the casino “induced the defendant to continue to gamble. During which time the plaintiff’s conduct caused the defendant to incur substantial losses.”
One of the more notorious cases of an unpaid casino debt was the NBA’s Antoine Walker. In 2011, he was ordered to repay $750,000 in gambling debts to three different Las Vegas casinos. He also pled guilty to one felony bad check charge and given five years’ probation.
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Brian Jeacoma 
April 13, 2020 
