Video Poker 247
- Woman Steals then Sues for Video Poker
Lauren Proctor has a gambling problem, and its name is video poker.
Proctor is addicted to video poker, and was unable to stop herself
from gambling. She was unable to fund her video poker addiction after
awhile, so she turned to stealing to fund it. Then when she realized
she had lost that money too, she tried suing the video poker
establishment to try and pay the money back.
Proctor stole $750,000 from a real estate trust fund that was
supervised by former Columbia Attorney Walter H. Smith, and was
insured by Atlantic Title Insurance Company. Proctor has pled guilty
to the crime of stealing and under her deal with federal prosecutors
will pay the insurance company back $$565,475.25. She will also have
to pay $195,000 to Smith as his license was suspended due to
negligence.
However, unless she wins her lawsuit against the man who ran the video
poker games she will be unable to pay them back. Her attorney was
hoping that the state will force Forrest Whitlark, the owner of the
video poker machines, to pay back some of the money he earned from the
machines. Whitlark is currently participating in a federal pretrial
diversion program and will not have to go to prison for operating the
illegal video poker machines.
Whitlark will serve 100 hours of community service at Harvest Hope
Food Bank and other charities per his brother. Proctor on the other
hand, is looking at 20 years in prison as she pled guilty to federal
fraud charges. Proctor’s lawyer says that he is amazed that Whitlark
is in this program and has not returned a dime of the money that he
took in from the video poker machines.
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November 2007 Archive
