Stars Interactive Holdings (IOM) Ltd., fka Amaya Group Holdings (IOM) Ltd., et al. v. Kentucky, ex rel. J. Michael Brown, Secretary of the Governor's Executive Cabinet

Kentucky’s Loss Recovery Act allows any person to sue a gambling winner for treble the amount of another person’s gambling losses. For the first time in its history, the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed suit under the Loss Recovery Act on its own behalf, seeking to recover the combined losses of its citizens on petitioners’ online poker website over a five-year period. In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Kentucky held that Kentucky was entitled to recover the value of every losing wager by Kentucky players without accounting for any winning wagers by those same players, and without regard to the amount of profits petitioners made from those wagers. After trebling, the judgment—the largest in Kentucky history— stands at $870 million, or more than $1.3 billion including interest. The questions presented are:

1. Whether an award of statutory damages violates due process when it exceeds by a factor of more than 30 any conceivable harm.

2. Whether the Excessive Fines Clause prohibits a State from punishing a defendant by imposing a penalty 50 times in excess of the defendant’s revenue earned from the prohibited conduct. (I)