Jerry's Famous Deli Owner Loses $1.2 Million At Seminole Casino

Jason Starkman is the owner of Epicure Gourmet Market and Jerry’s Famous Deli in the USA.
Along with Guy Starkman, the two brothers have continued to help run the family-owned company after their father, the Israeli-born Isaac Starkman, passed away in 2008.
It would seem that Jason Starkman is also partial to the odd flutter at the casino, and apparently lost $1.2 million playing baccarat, blackjack, and pai gow poker at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.
That was over three years ago and the Seminole Tribe of Florida have yet to receive their money, as Jason Starkman said he believes his gambling losses were illegal.
Previously, the Seminoles took their case to court but the Broward County Judge Richard Feder ruled in favour of Starkman, whose lawyer successfully argued that Florida Legislature hadn’t yet approved a compact with the tribe thus rendering his clients gambling losses as illegal.
As the argument goes, in 2008 the Seminoles’ casino continued to operate despite the legislature not ratifying the compact until  April 2010, a full six months after Jason Starkman lost the $1.2 million.
“Under Florida law, it’s an unenforceable debt because the compact wasn’t legal in November 2009,” Starkman’s lawyer Barry Blum explained.
Nevertheless, the Seminoles are now appealing the decision in a new filing, with the tribe’s attorney, Katherine Giddings, claiming the date is irelevant as a compact had been agreed between the legislature and the Seminoles before it was signed into law.
Supporting their case is the fact that during that time the tribe continued to operate as normal and sent $12.5 million of its gambling revenues to the state each month.
In the meantime, several years down the line and Starkman’s elaborate time spent gambling at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood has so far yet to catch up with him.