- A Pennsylvania couple can’t recover $700,000 in loans they gave to a friend after he lost it all gambling on blackjack.
- According to the lawsuit, the person who loses money gambling can’t be compelled to repay their agreement.
- The Dhaduks loaned friend Bhupendra Patel $700,000 across two loans while gambling at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood Florida.
PHILADELPHIA - A Pennsylvania couple can’t recover the $700,000 they loaned a friend to gamble after Monday’s Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruling. The couple, neurologist Vithalbahai Dhaduk and wife Ranjan Dhaduk, sued friend Bhupendra Patel after he failed to return a loan covering his blackjack losses, but he won’t have to pay it back based on Pennsylvania law.
State law stemming from a 1794 case states that a person who lost money gambling can’t be compelled to repay the debt and any previous agreement to pay said debt is utterly void. The Dhaduks argued that this case only applied to illegal gambling and that legalized casino gambling has evolved astronomically since 1794.
According to the lawsuit, “The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has concluded that Section 2031 voids any agreements or notes involving gambling debts and renders them unenforceable. See, e.g., Unger v. Boas, 13 Pa. 601, 602-603 (1850) (citing the statute and determining that a negotiable note given for a gaming debt while the borrower "was playing at a faro table" was void and unenforceable even in the hands of an innocent holder for value). Recently, this Court applied Section 2031 and concluded that "[a] Note . . . in which a portion of the outstanding principal was the result of satisfaction of a gambling debt is unenforceable."1Rounick, 231 A.3d at 1002.”
Friends Of Over 50 Years Battle In Court Over Gambling Debt
Court documents state that the two physicians have been friends for more than 50 years and often gambled together. Dhaduk claims he paid two loans to Patel for Florida blackjack at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida; one $200,000 loan in chips, and another $500,000 loan from Dhaduk’s credit line.
Now, the Dhaduks can’t recover any of the losses after Monday’s state Superior Court ruling.