Here’s to Mark Slotkin, president of Jacks or Better Casino LLC, which is essentially a gambling boat (pictured) which sails out of Mayport, Fla., on which passengers can legally bet on Las Vegas-style casino games. The NFL is gunning for him, and the resulting legal battle is likely to get messy. But Slotkin is prepared to go down with the ship. Taking on the NFL in court? Farewell, you crazy, magnificent bastard.
On his web site, Slotkin has a photo of Jaguars’ quarterback David Garrard. The NFL has sent him a cease and desist, demanding that he take it down. But Slotkin is refusing.
“I guess I just don’t like to be pushed around,” he said Wednesday. “If I’m going to be proven wrong, they will have to prove me wrong in court.”
“We are not prepared to strike our colors just because a giant machine like the NFL comes down on us for spurious and superficial reasons,” he wrote in an e-mail to the league.
Neither the NFL, the Jaguars, nor Garrard gave permission for Jacks or Better to use the photo of Garrard. The photo, which Slotkin said was taken from an Internet site, shows the quarterback running with the football in a game against the Houston Texans.
We know that the NFL’s legal team is powerful, but do they have jurisdiction in international waters? Somehow I have little doubt that the league has a navy of some sort, and is well armed for such encounters.
Asylum in Cuba may be Slotkin’s only hope. Godspeed, good sir.
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Jacksonville casino defies NFL demand to remove Jaguars photo [The Florida Times-Union]
