After spending millions of dollars to win just $27 in its feud with card manufacturer Gemaco, the Borgata casino in Atlantic City received a little bit of good news. Clinton Portis, a former NFL 
running back, has finally agreed to pay off most of the money from a gambling debt that he ran up at the casino in 2011, according to a CardPlayer report. It’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.
In 2011, Portis was playing poker at the casino when he applied for gambling credit. He secured the debt with personal checks that bounced higher than a football off Marquette King’s foot. The Borgata had given the two-time Pro Bowler a total of $200,000 and, after learning that the checks had bounced, sued the player in 2016.
Portis, who played for both the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins, will make good on his debt by making monthly payments from now to August 2021 that amount to 10% of “all gross income in excess of $30,000” that he earns during that period, court documents showed. Rough mental calculations indicate that the casino still might not recuperate all of the money lost. Perhaps it can give him a job to help increase his earnings.
Portis filed for bankruptcy in the second half of 2015, despite having earned over $43 million in his nine years in the NFL. He blamed other people for mismanaging his money and for taking advantage of him, and also admitted to thoughts of revenge in the past. In an interview with Sports Illustrated last year, he said that he had considered killing those that had done him wrong financially.
The Borgata is owned by MGM Resorts, but isn’t the only that suffered the Portis fate. The MGM Grand Casino in Vegas had also fallen prey to the rubber check debacle, and Portis still owes that casino around $280,000. MGM sued in 2014, but the case still has not been resolved.
