A jail cell with metal bars and bunk beds.
BOSTON – An ex-Boston attorney disbarred and sentenced to prison for stealing nearly $2 million from clients is now suing the State Lottery Commission for failing to help him with his gambling addiction.
Benjamin Tariri’s lawsuit against the MSLC was removed to federal court last week. It details a fall from grace that started with a “hobby” of buying scratch-off tickets and included a divorce, the passing of a child and a drop in revenue from his law practice caused by spending up to $2,000 per day on scratch-offs and the Mass Lottery Numbers Game.
Tariri was sentenced to 3-5 years in state prison in March after a Suffolk County jury found him guilty on six counts of fiduciary embezzlement, one count of larceny over $250 from a person over 60, two counts of larceny over $1,200 and five counts of attempted obstruction of Board of Bar Overseers proceedings.
“Defendant took no steps to stop or prevent Plaintiff from gambling,” he complains in his pro se complaint against the MSLC. “By contrast, indeed Defendant began to accelerate its targeting of Plaintiff by further direct advertising thus making it easier for Plaintiff to play.
“In fact, Plaintiff had registered his name on the Defendant’s website (‘MA Lottery Second Chance Club’), which aimed to promote Plaintiff from a casual player to a high-stakes gambler (VIP player). His status even as of today’s date is one of a VIP player with Mass Lottery.”
It was 2021 when a disgruntled client alleged Tariri told her to transfer $436,000 of her personal assets into his law firm’s account after she was unhappy with a machine she’d purchased for her dental practice. She claimed $511,000 in damages, and the case settled.
Prosecutors say several clients and attorneys complained to the BBO about Tariri, which led to disbarment in 2023. They say he submitted ledgers that falsely indicated he was holding client funds when he’d already spent the money.
During this time, his lawsuit says he had high hopes of winning $1 million from the Mass Lottery. He had once been making $300,000 a year at his general law practice and owned a seven-bedroom house in Cambridge that he sold in 2012 for more than $3 million. He had a Mercedes Benz, his wife had a Lexus SUV and his kids were in private school.
But he had to liquidate his belongings due to the divorce, he says, and the emotional toll manifested itself in multiple illnesses and hospitalizations for one of his children.
By 2017, Mass Lottery knew he was “profusely engaged in heavy gambling,” he alleges. In the next six years, he met with MSLC officials at least five times to “discuss his gambling habit as well as to collect his winnings, which were always immediately repaid back to the Defendant in order to enable Plaintiff to further gamble.”
Once, he was unable to collect winnings because he’d played on credit, despite the only-cash policy. An MSLC agent took the money, and Mass Lottery knew Tariri owed at least $8,000 to that agent, he says.
An investigator was informed Tariri was spending up to $1,800 a day but “took no action to address the Plaintiff’s obvious gambling addiction,” he said.
“By 2017, gambling had become a way of life for the Plaintiff,” he says. “He was simply consumed with the thought of gambling, during his waking hours as well as even in his dreams he was consumed by gambling.”
With little money for food and shelter, he turned to friends for cash. In 2023, his youngest son passed away at 17 years old, but he continued playing every day.
His lawsuit blames the Mass Lottery’s marketing campaign, especially promotions to win a $15 million jackpot, for his gambling addiction. He “felt that he was very close to finding the ticket with the Jackpot…”
He also accuses Mass Lottery officials of knowing he was an addict and failing to intervene. His suit makes claims for breach of contract, violation of the state Consumer Protection Act and negligence, among other things. It seeks reimbursement for all the money he spent, plus compensatory and punitive damages.
