Los Angeles Attorney Blames Gambling Addiction After Stealing $300,000 From Clients

A disbarred former Los Angeles attorney said a severe gambling addiction led him to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a July 21 release that Sergio Valdovinos Ramirez, 36, pleaded guilty to misappropriating more than $300,000 from his clients and writing bad checks.

“The defendant duped and deceived his clients of funds that were earmarked for them only to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars of these funds gambling. This truly was a house of cards that collapsed when law enforcement and state bar officials learned about his duplicitous actions,” said Hochman.

Ramirez pleaded guilty to three counts of felony grand theft by embezzlement and one count of felony insufficient funds in a checking account. He also admitted to committing a crime that resulted in $100,000 or more in losses.

Restitution and Prison Time

Hochman said Ramirez agreed to pay $310,000 in restitution. In exchange for his plea, he will be sentenced to only two years in state prison. The charges against him carried a possible punishment of more than a decade behind bars.

Between 2019 and 2023, Ramirez acknowledged that he cheated his clients out of money they were owed from court settlements and other legal affairs. Ramirez conceded that he wrote bad checks to clients, knowing his account did not have sufficient funds for them to clear.

Ramirez was admitted to the State Bar of California in December 2017. The State Bar deemed him ineligible to practice law in California in April 2023 amid the fraud investigation. Ramirez was disbarred in October 2024.

Ramirez remained free during the probe and court case against him on a recognizance bond.

Cardroom Addiction

According to the criminal complaint against Ramirez, the disgraced attorney gambled and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars at two prominent casino cardrooms in the Los Angeles area.

The charging document detailed that Ramirez frequented The Bicycle Casino and Commerce Casino. The complaint claimed Ramirez purchased at least $886,000 in gambling chips between 2019 and 2023. Those five years included COVID-19, when both casinos were shut down for lengthy periods on state and local orders.

California cardrooms offer non-house-banked table games like poker. For traditionally house-banked games like blackjack, the cardrooms use a player-designated dealer arrangement where players take turns serving as the house.

The legality of player-dealer schemes continues to play out in state court, with a judge ruling in late June that the California Bureau of Gambling Control exceeded its authority by issuing sweeping new rules restricting the practice.