By Grace Schneider
gschneider@courier-journal.com
INDIANAPOLIS – A lawyer for a Tennessee woman who has accused the former Caesars Indiana of taking advantage of her gambling addiction told the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday that Hoosier casinos shouldn’t be immune from liability for harming such customers.
When a casino intentionally targets someone who has money to burn and is a compulsive gambler, it has a responsibility to protect that person from harming herself, attorney Terry Noffsinger told five justices during a morning hearing.
“The law protects the sick, it protects the helpless,” Noffsinger said. Therefore, he said. casinos have an implied responsibility not to prey upon customers who can’t control themselves.
The court heard about 45 minutes of arguments by Noffsinger and casino lawyer Gene Price.
Noffsinger is representing Jenny Kephart, an unemployed suburban Nashville resident whose court battle with the Harrison County riverboat, now renamed Horseshoe Southern Indiana, has put a spotlight on casinos and their dealings with compulsive gamblers.
Price argued that Indiana gambling laws and regulations closely monitor the activities of casinos, including a requirement that operators must cut off addicted gamblers who ask to be banned.
The court is expected to rule in the case sometime next year.
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