Konstantin Zoggolis v. Wynn Las Vegas, LLC

Appellant Konstantin Zoggolis (Zoggolis) challenges the district court’s dismissal of his state law breach of contract and recoupment claims concerning gambling debts that Zoggolis owed to Appellee Wynn Las Vegas (Wynn). Zoggolis contends that the district court erred in dismissing his complaint due to Zoggolis’ failure to exhaust his claims before the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Because Zoggolis’ gambling debts were evidenced by credit instruments in the form of markers, we reverse the district court’s dismissal of Zoggolis’ claims.

I. BACKGROUND

In his Complaint, Zoggolis alleged that he entered into a credit agreement with Wynn for a $150,000 credit line. The credit agreement provided that “[b]efore drawing on [his] line of credit, if granted, [Zoggolis] agree[d] to sign credit instruments (i.e. checks) in the amount of the draw.” Zoggolis also “authoriz[ed] [Wynn] to complete any of the following missing items on these credit instruments: (1) the name of a payee; (2) any missing amounts; (3) a date; (4) the name, account, number and/or address and branch of any banks and financial institutions and (5) any electronic encoding of the above items.” Zoggolis agreed…