Within a half-hour of arriving, Manley was at a blackjack table, ordering his first old-fashioned from the bar in the high-stakes salon. He didn’t even make it through the first day.

Manley’s plan that weekend was to gamble and then play in a poker tournament at the casino. His accommodations were handled by a casino host, whom Manley had been working with for the past five years.

Semenza, the attorney for MGM Resorts International, declined comment.

“He is determined to do all that he can to track down and hold accountable those responsible.” Manley feels that a serious criminal act was directed at him which potentially put his life in danger,” said one of Manley’s attorneys, Richard K. Meanwhile, Manley lost $2 million in markers to MGM, which wants another $440,000, according to his lawsuit, which was filed in November 2022 and amended in July. 12, his representatives announced a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who drugged him. Manley, 57, of Brea has filed a federal lawsuit against MGM Resorts International for consumer fraud and negligence, claiming the casino kept extending his credit millions of dollars even though his behavior had become visibly erratic after someone allegedly put ketamine in his old-fashioned cocktail. And on one particularly ugly afternoon at an MGM Grand Resort and Casino blackjack table, he took a multimillion-dollar hit that he blames on a drink spiked with a tranquilizer used on animals. In the parlance of Las Vegas, Orange County real estate developer Dwight Manley is a “whale.”Īn expert coin collector and former sports agent who represented NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman, Manley could be counted on to bet big.

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