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Director Nick Cassavetes has been caught up in a complicated scandal involving Hollywood celebrity underground high stakes poker games and ponzi schemes.
A lawsuit claims that a hedge funds manager used investor funds to organize the high stakes games, resulting in losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Spiderman star Toby Maquire is also named in the suit while Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez allegedly played in some of the games.
Cassavetes argues that the games are legal in California. This week he filed a Motion to Dismiss on grounds thatCalifornia law does not consider Texas Hold 'Em to be illegal gambling.
From TMZ.com:
According to the docs, the game is not played as a banking or percentage game. For example, blackjack is a banking game because you play against the house. In Texas Hold 'Em, you play against the other players.
According to California law, the penal code only prohibits banking or percentage games. The law singles out illegal games, including roulette, blackjack, 21, hokey-pokey, rondo, tan, fan-tan, 7 1/2, lansquenet and rouge et noir ... but Texas Hold 'Em is not mentioned.
Ace King, Gambling911.com
