The state of Kentucky’s settlement with an online poker site means a jackpot for one Lexington law firm.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced last week that Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of PokerStars, will pay $300 million to end a decade of litigation over allegedly illegal and untaxed gambling that had been operating in Kentucky via the Internet.
In a prepared statement, Beshear’s office said the settlement is “$300 million that the General Assembly will be able to direct to critical areas, like education, health care and economic development.”
However, of that total, $75 million goes to the state’s private attorneys at the firm of Hurt, Deckard & May.
Lexington attorney Jim Deckard and his firm pursued the case for the state on a 25 percent contingency fee under a 2008 contract issued by the administration of Beshear’s father, then-Gov. Steve Beshear.
A contingency fee means the firm covered the costs of case preparation out of its own pocket — including its own salaries, experts, court filings and travel — and it only got paid if the state did.
The state did.
Deckard didn’t return a call Wednesday seeking comment. In the past, he served as general counsel to former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, executive director of the Kentucky Bar Association and chief of staff to former Kentucky Chief Justice Joseph Lambert.
Originally, PokerStars was on the hook for a $1.3 billion judgment. But its Dublin, Ireland-based parent company resisted paying that for months, vowing to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, eventually leading to the smaller settlement.The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled last year that PokerStars was “an illegal internet gambling criminal syndicate” that raked in more than $290 million from about 34,000 Kentuckians from 2006 to 2011. Wagering on online poker is illegal in Kentucky. State law allows lawsuits to recover money lost to such gambling, with tripled damages.This story was originally published October 7, 2021 10:26 AM.
Click here to view original web page at www.kentucky.com
