Wynn Las Vegas, LLC. v. Anandani (In re Anandani)

578 B.R. 523
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 11, 2017
DocketCase No. 16-10533REF; Adv. No. 16-224
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 578 B.R. 523 (Wynn Las Vegas, LLC. v. Anandani (In re Anandani)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wynn Las Vegas, LLC. v. Anandani (In re Anandani), 578 B.R. 523 (Pa. 2017).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

RICHARD E. FEHLING, United States Bankruptcy Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs, Wynn Las Vegas, LLC (“Wynn Las Vegas”), GNLV Corp. d/b/a Golden Nugget Las Vegas (“Golden Nugget Las Vegas”), and Golden Nugget Atlantic City, LLC d/b/a Golden Nugget Atlantic City (“Golden Nugget Atlantic City”), filed an adversary complaint to determine that certain gambling debts owed to them by Defendant, Rakesh D. Ananda-ni (“Defendant”), should be nondischargeable under 11 U.S.C. §§ 523(a)(2)(A) and (a)(6). I conducted the trial in this dispute on March 20 & 21, 2017. At the beginning [526]*526of the trial, counsel reported that Wynn Las Vegas and Defendant had. settled, the terms of which settlement were not disclosed. Wynn Las Vegas therefore did not participate in the trial, leaving only Golden Nugget Las Vegas and Golden Nugget New Jersey as plaintiffs (together, “Plaintiffs”) in the trial against Defendant.

At the conclusion of the trial, I took the matter under advisement and directed the parties to file briefs. The parties filed briefs in July 2017 and the matter is now ready for disposition.1 Because Plaintiffs failed to meet their burdens of proof, the gambling debts owed to Plaintiffs are dis-chargeable under sections 528(a)(2)(A) and 523(a)(6). I will enter judgment in favor of Defendant and against Plaintiffs.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Defendant applied for his first line of credit with Golden Nugget Atlantic City in September 2012. The line of credit was approved and Defendant used the credit to gamble at the Golden Nugget Atlantic City casino. Prior to August 2015, Defendant obtained advances on this line of credit to gamble at the Golden Nugget Atlantic City casino and he repaid each advance on time.2

Defendant applied and was approved for his first line of credit from Golden Nugget Las Vegas in February 2015 after being approached and recruited by one of its representatives. Plaintiff was offered and accepted $10,000 in promotional chips to gamble at the casino. Between February 2015 and August 15, 2015, Defendant used this line of credit seven or eight times, each time borrowing $100,000, to gamble at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas casino. Defendant repaid each of the credit line advances on time.

On August 9, 2015, Defendant obtained an advance on his line of credit with Golden Nugget Atlantic City and was issued a marker in the amount of $100,000 to secure repayment of this advance. The marker was drawn on a joint bank account number 5720 owned by Defendant and his wife at Bank of America. Defendant used these funds to gamble at the Golden Nugget Atlantic City casino.

On August 15, 2015, Defendant obtained advances on his line of credit with Golden Nugget Las Vegas in the total amount of $250,000 and was issued three markers in the total amount of $250,000 to Golden Nugget Las Vegas to secure repayment of these advances. These markers were also drawn on bank account 5720. Defendant used these funds to gamble at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas casino.

At the time the markers were issued, insufficient funds existed in account 5720 to cover them, although sufficient funds to cover them existed in another Bank of America account, number 1608, jointly owned by Defendant and his wife. Before August 2016, Defendant would, at times, repay the amounts owed on markers with cash or gambling winnings as opposed to having the markers deposited by the casinos. In addition, Defendant was well versed in casino operations in the states of New Jersey and Nevada. Defendant knew that in New Jersey, markers in an amount over $5,000 would ordinarily not be deposited by the casino, or considered overdue, [527]*527until the 45th day after the marker was issued. Defendant also knew that in Las Vegas, the markers would generally not be deposited, or considered overdue, until the 30th day after the markers were issued.

Prior to 2015, Defendant and his wife had argued for two or three years about his gambling habits. In June 2015, Mrs. Anandani separated from Defendant, although they remained living in the same home. When Defendant returned from his gambling trips in August 2015, he told his wife about his gambling losses and his desire to sell certain parcels of real estate they jointly owned to pay the gambling debts. Mrs. Anandani refused to allow the properties to be sold and advised Defendant that she was filing for divorce, which she did on August 20,2015.

On August 21, 2015, Mrs. Anandani withdrew $325,000 from bank account 1608. She withdrew an additional $35,000 from account 1608 on August 26, 2015. Mrs. Anandani made both of these withdrawals without Defendant’s knowledge. Mrs. Anandani withdrew these funds to prevent Defendant from using the funds to pay Plaintiffs the amounts owed on the outstanding lines of credit and to prevent Defendant from further gambling.

On August 28, 2015, Mrs, Anandani’s divorce counsel filed a petition in the state court divorce proceeding to freeze the marital assets. The petition was granted by the state court judge overseeing the divorce proceeding on August 31, 2015.

In September 2015, a special master was appointed in the Anandani’s divorce proceeding to determine equitable distribution of the Anandanis’ marital assets and other issues. After a conference with the Anan-danis’ divorce counsel, the master sent a letter to counsel in the divorce proceeding dated October 16, 2015, which stated, in pertinent part: .

Under the circumstances, since a vast majority of the debt is gambling debt incurred by Husband, it shall be attributable to Husband alone. Therefore, the Master recommends a framework wherein Wife will receive the vast majority of all the assets. A reasonable framework would be that Husband keeps perhaps one or two properties and perhaps a nominal sum of money and a vehicle with Wife receiving the remainder of the assets. In addition, Husband would be responsible for the gambling debt in his name alone,

See Exhibit P-11, p, 1.

The master rendered his final decision in a letter dated December 10, 2015 addressed to the Anandani’s divorce counsel. The decision awarded the vast majority of marital assets to Mrs. Anandani and made Defendant solely responsible for all gambling debt due to “extensive dissipation of the marital assets as a result of [Defendant’s] gambling losses which were unknown to Wife.... ” See Exhibit P-12, pp. 1-3. The state court judge made the December 10 letter an Order of Court on January 15, 2016, See Exhibit P-12, p.4.

Through Fall 2015, Defendant believed he would be able to pay Plaintiffs the amounts owed on the markers by selling property he owned jointly with his wife, from assets he would receive in the divorce proceeding, or from funds he could obtain from friends and relatives. His wife, however, refused to allow the sale of the jointly held property. After the master issued his recommendation, it was apparent to Defendant that he could not depend on his divorce settlement to pay the markers owed to Plaintiffs. He soon thereafter learned that friends and relatives would no longer provide him with funds to pay his gambling debts because they all decided that “enough is enough.” Notes of Testi[528]*528mony (“N.T.”), March 21, 2017 trial, at p. 104, line 8.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Heckard v. Hayward
E.D. Pennsylvania, 2024

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
578 B.R. 523, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wynn-las-vegas-llc-v-anandani-in-re-anandani-paeb-2017.