Amaya Faces $290M Judgement Against PokerStars – Update

The case involving the state versus Amaya's PokerStars just got three times worse as of Wednesday, December 23, 2015 when a Franklin Circuit Court judge awarded the state $870 million. Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the state would receive three times the original $290 million judgement in relation to the 2010 lawsuit against Amaya Inc., in which the state claims that from October 12, 2006 to April 15, 2011, over 34,000 Kentucky players suffered a loss of at least $5 on PokerStars games. The state called upon an old statute that allowed it to represent the losing players and file the case claiming damages on their behalf. According to Kentucky.com, Amaya's lawyer, Sheryl Snyder, said, “Absolutely, we plan to appeal. We think that awarding $870 million against a company that did $18 million in revenue is a total misuse of an anachronistic statute.” Judge Wingate initially ruled in favor of the state for $290M on November 20th and after receiving Amaya's request for a reconsideration, he tripled the judgement to $870,690,233 as allowed by the statute. The judge wrote that the gambling operator may “find the final damage award to be harsh medicine. Such is the consequences for violating the laws of Kentucky.” The judge didn't stop there as he also slapped Amaya with a 12% interested rate per year until the payment is made in full. A representative for Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, Jessica Ditto, said that he was happy with Judge Wingate's ruling. “The governor looks forward to discussing with his counsel the strategy going forward,” she said. Of course Amaya intends to appeal the decision, which will see the case head to the state Court of Appeals or Supreme Court and could take years to finalize.