Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the two-tower resort and casino on the Strip, recently announced it dropped the $500,000 case for unpaid casino markers they filed in late 2019 against NHL’s player Evander Kane.
The NHL, much like the other professional sports leagues in the US have suspended the season due to the ongoing implementation of measures to retain the virus spread, effective March 12. Unlike casino workers, though, almost immediately after the suspension the league announced all NHL players will receive their pay checks duly.
Play & Pay or Else Face Charges
For Evander Kane, the 28-year-old left wing of San Jose Sharks, who is on a 7-year contract worth $49 million, $7 million guaranteed annual salary plus sign on bonus, a debt in the region of $500,000 represents less than 7% of his earnings. Yet, in November 2019, Cosmopolitan filed a suitcase against him in Clark County District Court, claiming he did not pay back casino markers extended to him in April.
A casino marker is a line of credit issued to a VIP client to allow high-level gambling customers easy access to large sums of cash. Markers are available only after the casino credit department has examined the financial worthiness of the candidate beforehand and determined a final line of credit. In essence, casino markers are interest-free short-term loans which have to be promptly repaid, or else the borrower faces high interest rates and possible criminal charges.
Evander Kane, a Canadian citizen, was alleged to have taken 8 credits of varying amount in the range of $20,000 to $100,000, on or about April 15, a date that coincided with the period between Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup first-round playoff between Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks. In addition to the unpaid credits, Cosmopolitan sought repayment of legal fees associated with the lawsuit.
Player on the Rink/g/
During the first-round playoff series with the Knights which the Sharks managed to turn around from losing 3-1 to 4-3 win, Evander Kane became the local fans’ “favourite”, after getting into an altercation with Knights’ Ryan Reeves during Game 3, a night before Cosmopolitan claims the markers were issued to him.
In another match with the Knights, a preseason game in September, Cane went into another brawl, this time with Deryk Engelland, and got incidentally knocked down by the referee while trying to split the two players apart. In return, Evander Cane got up and shoved the referee in the chest, a behavior he got fined $113,000 in salaries and suspended for the first three games of the season.
Cosmopolitan’s attorney, Lawrence Semenza, confirmed the case against the notorious Shark’s left wing has been dropped and can’t be brought up in court again, declining to provide further detail whether it was settled out of court or any other stipulations of the dismissal.