King’s Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik is being sued by Australian poker player Matthew Kirk for $2 million in outstanding gambling debts which he claims he loaned Tsoukernik on May 27 during a high stakes poker game which took place at the Ivey Poker Room which is located at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. MGM Resorts owns the Aria Resort & Casino.

High Profile Lawsuit

Leon Tsoukernik wasn’t having the best of nights on May 27 and ran out of funds but wanted to continue playing. Kirk who is known to play high stake games decided to loan Tsoukernik as much as $3 million in funds which he did in the form of chips. Kirk slid across the table sums of $500k to $1 million till an alleged 3 million was loaned. He did not take any written agreement from Tsoukernik but would later go on to send him a few texts, detailing the amount that he had loaned and received an acknowledgement from Tsoukernik.

Tsoukernik ran through his stack of $3 million in a little over an hour and would later go on to pay back Kirk $1 million. When Kirk tried to collect the remaining $2 million, Tsoukernik wasn’t willing to pay him back and things started to go sour between the two. Rob Yong who is a mutual acquaintance of the two players and a respected casino operator was called in to see if he could broker a deal between the two players and he tried on two separate occasions but failed.

Kirk was unhappy that Tsoukernik decided to hedge on the loan and slandered him publically for being a cheat and a fraud. He would also go on to file a lawsuit to recover the 2 million in funds stating that it wasn’t a gambling loan but a business deal which had gone bad. The business deal angle was dismissed by District Judge Linda Marie Bell who said the case had to be treated as a gambling debt.

Aria Resort Allegations

Tsoukernik has filed a counter lawsuit to the tune of $10 million alleging that Kirk and Aria casino employees had colluded to take advantage of him. Tsoukernik says he was highly intoxicated and found it hard to read his cards and count his chips. He points out that other players tried to get him to leave the table because they could see how drunk he was but Aria casino staff prevented him from doing so, encouraged him to drink more and keep playing.

Tsoukernik said the Aria Resort & Casino used unethical practices to manipulate him to continue to play at the high stakes event knowing that he wasn’t in his senses. The King’s Casino owner pointed out that such unethical practices were not practiced at his casino and that both Aria and Kirk must be pulled up by the courts. Tsoukernik wants to claim $10 million in damages as his reputation has taken a beating due to the much publicized lawsuit. MGM Resorts has so far decided not to release a statement due to on-going legal proceedings.

Tags: Aria Resort & Casino, High stakes poker, Kings Casino, Leon Tsoukernik, Matthew Kirk, MGM Resorts, poker ethics

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