Why a Kentucky Court of Appeals Ruled in Favor of The Stars Group in $870 Million Lawsuit Why a Kentucky Court of Appeals Ruled in Favor of The Stars Group in $870 Million Lawsuit
Key Takeaways
  • The Kentucky Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the Stars Group (TSG), reversing the three-year-old judgment amounting to $870 million.
  • The court concluded that the complaint put forward by the Commonwealth of Kentucky was flawed and it should have been dismissed for lack of standing.
  • The ruling also said that the state does not have the legal right to sue as Kentucky is not a “person” under Kentucky’s Loss Recovery Act (LRA) that allows people to sue and seek recovery of gambling losses.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the Stars Group (TSG), parent company of PokerStars, reversing the three-year-old judgment amounting to $870 million in what was considered to be the largest ruling against a company in the history of the state.

A three-judge panel voted in favor of TSG discarding the massive penalty that had been imposed by a trial court judge in December 2015 for alleged losses incurred by Kentucky residents who played real-money poker on PokerStars between 2006 and 2011.

In a 34-page verdict, the court concluded that the complaint put forward by the Commonwealth of Kentucky was flawed and it should have been dismissed for lack of standing.