On the surface, the Jaguars are trying to get blood from a stone. At a deeper level, they might be setting up a far more lucrative play.
Via Xuan Thai of ESPN.com, the Jaguars have sued Amit Patel for $22.2 million that he embezzled, largely to support a gambling habit. The relevant principal of Florida law permits the Jaguars to recover treble damages, pushing the suit to $66.6 billion.
It’s a slam-dunk, based on Patel’s admissions in a federal prosecution that culminated in a guilty plea.
Unless the Jaguars are simply trying to prove a point and/or hedge against the possibility of Patel eventually winning the lottery, it’s possible that the team is setting up an effort to recover money from FanDuel or DraftKings.
Court documents, per Thai, show that Patel transferred $20 million to FanDuel and $1 million to DraftKings. The Jaguars previously asked FanDuel to repay some or all of that money.
Given the potential ramifications flowing from an NFL team suing one or more significant NFL partners, the Jaguars might be hoping that their lawsuit against Patel will prompt him to file what’s known as a third-party complaint against the sports books. Then, Patel could/would/should argue that FanDuel and DraftKings (but particularly FanDuel, given the magnitude of the deposit) acted with negligence and/or recklessness and/or deliberate indifference and/or malice aforethought and/or whatever other fancy lawyer terms can be cooked up to show that the sports books have a basic legal duty to detect patterns that indicate embezzlement.
Next, Patel could/would/perhaps should recover the money he spent from FanDuel and/or DraftKings, with that payment passing through to the Jaguars.
Would Patel do it? There’s no downside in trying.
Frankly, it’s possible that the Jaguars and Patel, working through their lawyers, have decided to cooperate in this regard, with a side deal that they won’t seek anything from him beyond whatever he recovers from FanDuel and/or DraftKings.
Earlier this month, we pointed out that England requires sports books to detect patterns suggesting problem gambling and/or theft. Even though the American gambling industry has yet to spawn such protections, litigation traditionally represents one of the most viable and effective ways to create those protections.
One case at a time. With the first case perhaps being the Jaguars v. Patel v. FanDuel and/or DraftKings.