Had a bookmaker put it on the board, it’s a bet I would have made: Convicted swindler Robert Alexander and controversial gambler Robert Cipriani would wind up taking their ongoing feud from the casino floor at Resorts World Las Vegas to the floor of a southern Nevada courtroom.
Alexander is a formerly high-rolling gambler, video game promoter, and founder of online gaming company Kizzang. In January 2020, he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York to federal securities and wire-fraud counts and is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. The felonies each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years with potential fines in the millions.
In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Geoffrey S. Berman said, “Robert Alexander, president of an online gaming company, induced investors through false statements about the health of his company and his own background. Alexander betrayed his investors and spent their funds to support his lifestyle, including gambling excursions to multiple casinos and a luxury car for one of his family members. Robert Alexander now faces serious time in prison for gaming his investors.”
You might think Alexander would have more important things on his mind than filing a lawsuit against the professional irritant Cipriani, but you’d be wrong.
Cipriani, meanwhile, is the headline-chasing whistleblower who goes by “Robin Hood 702” on social media, but for months has mostly appeared obsessed with exposing problematic players at Resorts World on the Strip. He has claimed that a list of convicted felons gambled there. Cipriani has his own history of brushes with the law and last year was charged with cheating at gambling and the theft of Alexander’s cell phone.
Alexander happened to be using the phone to video Cipriani as he played cards at the casino at the time it was snatched and taken to a nearby casino cage. It would appear Alexander blames Cipriani for some of his problems.
Sound petty? It gets weirder.
After vigorously pursuing felony charges and going to the extent of calling for a bench warrant for Cipriani’s arrest, the District Attorney’s casino prosecutors agreed to reduce the noisy case to a single misdemeanor of disorderly conduct. Cipriani, who had been trespassed by the casino, also agreed not to contact anyone associated with Resorts World.
Alexander’s son, Nicholas, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which was filed in in January in District Court by attorney Lisa M. Szyc. It accuses Cipriani of an unprovoked “verbal altercation” at the casino and “forcibly” removing the cell phone from his hands, causing him “to suffer severe and permanent injuries and damages.” The suit claims negligence, assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.
Cipriani has responded through attorney Paul Padda with a crossclaim that offers a litany of affirmative defenses and the standard legalese that’s often part of the early stages of a litigation.
Then there’s some language you don’t always see: “Counterplaintiff RC intends to bring additional parties into this action who, for the present time, cannot be identified.”
The counterclaim also alleges, “Following his trespass, Counterdefendants engaged in a campaign to carry out their threat of destruction. This included having Counterplaintiff prosecuted on frivolous charges which were later dropped.”
That sounds intriguing. It will make skeptics wonder about the identities of those so-called “additional parties,” and whether there’s evidence to support that alleged “threat of destruction.”
So why have I taken all the trouble to detail a glorified schoolyard scuffle between two adults who should have better things to do with their time now that their action’s not welcome in Las Vegas?
Because the Alexander-Cipriani dustup threatens to further drag Resorts World through a mess that’s already gone on for too many months. It’s a tangle that has drawn the attention of the Gaming Control Board, at a time when activity on the Strip has been surging and casino companies of every size continue to pursue new opportunities in other jurisdictions.
For now, the counterclaim and original lawsuit are little more than legal saber-rattling by a couple of casino characters who seem incapable of brushing themselves off and walking away.
