Jamie Gold Lawsuit Update

UPDATE: Lawyers for Jamie Gold and Bruce Crispin Leyser agreed on an injunction to freeze half of Gold's World Series of Poker winnings until the parties resolve their dispute as to Gold's promise to split his prize with Leyser.

Gold's lawyers have until September 15 to challenge the injunction. In the meantime, the Rio will hold $6 million of the $12 million Gold won.

ORIGINAL STORY:

If Bruce Crispin Leyser is telling the truth, there are two very important lessons to be learned from this story:

1. Don’t make a promise you don’t intend on keeping, even if you think you’re making it in jest.
2. If someone promises you something significant, get it in writing.

Barely a week after winning $12 million in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, Jamie Gold is being sued by Leyser for half of the purse. In the suit, filed in District Court, Leyser, a television development executive, claims Gold promised him half of anything he won and is now failing to pay up.

According to Leyser, the two met in Las Vegas in July, and partly as a result of their common careers (Gold is also a television producer) and their love of poker, the two started a friendship. Gold told Leyser about a contract he had with the internet poker room, Bodog, where they would pay for his seat into the Main Event in exchange for him finding some celebrities to wear Bodog gear while playing at the WSOP.

Leyser helped Gold recruit the celebrities, Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby Doo) and Dax Shepard (Punk’d), in exchange for “sharing” the seat with Gold.

Leyser stated in the lawsuit, “Being that there was only one seat being offered by 'Bodog,' Plaintiff and Defendant agreed that whoever played in the seat at the World Series of Poker main event would split any winnings equally with the other.”

Richard Schonfeld, Leyser’s attorney, said that according to Leyser, Gold told him Bodog required that Gold play instead of Leyser.

While Schonfeld did not say whether or not there was a written agreement in place regarding the shared winnings, it is assumed there is not one, as it has not been produced. Leyser does supposedly have a record message on his answering machine from Gold, where the promise was mentioned. Just before eleven o’clock the morning of the final table, Gold called Leyser and allegedly left the following message:

“I promise you - you can keep this recording on my word - there's no possible way you're not going to get half after taxes. So please just be with me. I can't imagine you're going to have a problem with it. I just don't want any stress about any money or any of that (expletive) going on today, or even after the end of the day.”

Gold went on to reiterate that Leyser would get paid and asked for his trust in the matter. He also let Leyser know that he would create a corporation to pay him the winnings.

But, after all of that, Leyser now claims that Gold refused to have the Rio pay him his share of the winnings. Leyser believes he is being defrauded; there has been no discussion of the payment being delayed because Gold wants it to go through the Nevada corporation he said he was going to setup.

The first hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for September 1. Until then, a restraining order has been issued to prevent Gold from collecting his winnings at the Rio.

In an interview on “Rounders – The Poker Show” hosted by Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz on both BigPoker.ca and Vancouver’s AM 1040 radio station two days after his victory, Gold did discuss his relationship with Leyser and Bodog. He made no mention of any deal to split the winnings. He did say that Leyser helped him get the celebrities for Bodog and that he actually wanted Leyser to have the seat instead of himself. According to Gold in the interview, Bodog insisted that he play, not Leyser.

Originally published August 22, 2006