Zoggolis v. Wynn Las Vegas, No. 11-17939 (9th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against Wynn Las Vegas, alleging claims of breach of contract and recoupment regarding gambling debts that plaintiff owed to Wynn. The district court dismissed based on plaintiff's failure to exhaust the claims before the Nevada Gaming Control Board. The court held, however, that plaintiff was not required to exhaust his claims before the Gaming Control Board because the markers that underlie his case are credit instruments under Nevada law. Because the markers are credit instruments, plaintiff's claims did not trigger the Gaming Control Board's exclusive jurisdiction under Nev. Rev. Stat. 463.361(2). Plaintiff's claims must be resolved in the same manner as any other dispute involving the enforceability of a negotiable instrument. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded.
Court Description: Nevada State Law. The panel reversed the district court’s dismissal, due to failure to exhaust claims before the Nevada Gaming Control Board, of Konstantin Zoggolis’s Nevada state law breach of contract and recoupment claims concerning gambling debts that Zoggolis owed to Wynn Las Vegas. The panel held that Zoggolis was not required to exhaust his claims before the Gaming Control Board because the markers that underlay this case were credit instruments. The panel also held that because the markers were credit instruments, Zoggolis’ claims did not trigger the Gaming Control Board’s exclusive jurisdiction over a “gaming debt that is not evidenced by a credit instrument” under Nev. Rev. Stat. § 463.361(2). The panel concluded that Zoggolis’s claims must be resolved in the same manner as any other dispute involving the enforceability of a negotiable instrument. The panel expressed no view on the outcome of the proceedings on remand.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.