Sports Legends Challenge Shuts Doors after Venetian Lawsuit

PokerNews probably woulda prefered their name were never attached to this event.

The Venetian sued the parent company of the Sports Legends Challenge last week in Clark County Court, claiming the operation skipped out on a contract to the tune of $174k.

And now, according to at least one disgruntled former employee and phones no longer being answered, the operation full-on shut down today.

We can only imagine, that this is just the beginning of the fallout, actually.

Think about it … you\’ve got two lawsuits regarding the set-up of the event … and we haven\’t even gotten to the Bahamas yet!

Whether or not there was any fraud-like criminal activity in this multimillion-dollar-semi-bluff-gone-awry remains to be seen. Two lawsuits aside, potential additions to the got-screwed list include:

— Player who bought in
— Investors
— Charities hosting casino events promising SLC seats as prizes
— Players who won those seats
— Players who chopped and paid cash for the extra portion of those seats
— Poker pros who fronted their own travel costs

Anyone else?

(Click here for stuff on the still-pending Sludikoff lawsuit, filed in February.)

Apparently even before the too-good-to-be-true Bahamas-Atlantis event got hyped up and collapsed, the plan was to hold the super-big exciting Sports Legends Challenge at the Venetian … during the end of the WSOP main event in July … but somewhere along the way that fell apart.

The Venetian lawsuit (vs. Hall of Fame World Poker Championship LLC*) actually seems a bit peculiar, since the alleged money-stiffage came even before SLC backed out on the necessary $26k deposit to reserve suites and conference space.

* The name of the company shoulda been the first red flag, no?