COURT TO DECIDE N.Z. POKER DISPUTE
3 July 2009
Squabble over the spoils from a poker event
at Australia's Crown Casino
A long-running legal scrap between two well known New
Zealand poker players, Jamil Dia and Constantine Harach,
is back in a Wellington court for the fifth time in an
attempt to resolve a dispute over shares in a $500 000
win at Melbourne's Crown Casino back in early 2005,
reports the New Zealand Herald.
The two men,
formerly firm friends who have competed in international
poker tourneys, have on occasion shared winnings. But
not this time. When Dia achieved a major $500 000
victory and declined to share, Harach, who claims there
was an agreement to share 20 percent of winnings between
the two, has been angry ever since.
The Herald
reports that so far the courts have said Dia holds the
winning hand in the legal battle, the fifth round of
which played out in the High Court at Wellington this
week.
Harach had appealed against the decision of
a lower district court judge, who was not convinced the
two men had agreed to share the Melbourne winnings.
Justice Forrie Miller reserved his decision
yesterday.
Earlier in the case another
professional player had told a court that players often
formed partnerships or percentage swap agreements to
spread the risk of losing.
In the same Melbourne
tournament from which Harach says he should have
received $100 000 of Dia's winnings, Dia paid $75 000 to
another friend, Dino Focas.
It was a handsome
return for Focas agreeing to pay 15 percent, or $1 500,
of the $10 000 tournament buy-in in return for 15
percent of the winnings.
Dia's lawyer, Andrew
Davie, said his client paid Focas promptly, which
illustrated that Dia paid his agreed obligations in an
honourable manner.
Harach's lawyer said it was
not clear why the district court judge had preferred
Dia's claim that the two men had stopped sharing their
winnings in 2002.
Online Casino News Courtesy of
Infopowa
More news here.
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