A Southern California entrepreneur who gambled away $500,000 during Super Bowl weekend at a casino in Las Vegas says he shouldn't have to foot the bill because he was exceedingly intoxicated at the time.
52-year-old Mark Johnston of Ventura told CBS News that he is suing the Downtown Grand for giving him alcohol and sliding him cash while he was blackout drunk.
According to state law, casinos cannot allow visibly intoxicated customers to participate in table games, nor can servers continue giving free drinks, which is standard protocol at most Las Vegas gambling establishments.
Sean Lyttle, Johnston's attorney, said that his client is seeking damages from the Grand, which first opened its doors in November 2012, and has put a stop-payment order on the casino credits he was issued. Lyttle also told CBS News that Grand will most likely track Johnston down for sidestepping his debts.
Johnston said he was completely wasted while playing blackjack and pai gow at the Grand during the weekend of February 2, CBS reported. Lyttle said the Ventura resident's legal team will use video footage and eyewitnesses to show just how drunk he was at the time.
"It's certainly an extraordinary case," Lyttle told CBS. "This is not a story that I've ever heard before, where someone was blackout intoxicated where they couldn't read their cards, and yet a casino continued to serve them drinks and issue them more markers. It's a very heavy-handed and unusual approach that we haven't seen in this town in a long time."
The state Gaming Control Board has been tasked with the investigation. Representatives from the Grand wouldn't offer a comment on the matter when approached by CBS reporters.
Johnston reportedly landed in Vegas on the Thursday prior to the Super Bowl and immediately started sipping on booze - he reportedly drank in the limousine from the airport to the Grand, kept drinking through a dinner with some acquaintances, then allegedly blacked out.
According to the lawsuit, Johnston said the Grand fed him more than a dozen drinks while he sat at the table, letting hundreds of thousands of dollars fly out of his pockets. He said he didn't know just how much he'd lost until he found out the next day.
Johnston made his fortune by working in real estate and car dealerships.
