Pa. inmate goes after USA Today for ruining his jailhouse gambling operations

A state court threw out a Pennsylvania man’s lawsuit against a newspaper company, which he claimed “ruined” his jailhouse gambling operations.

In his suit, Alton Brown blamed USA Today’s former publisher and President Larry Kramer for the newspaper’s decision to stop running gambling data, including Las Vegas betting odds, on sporting events, PennLive reported.

Brown, who has a record of assault, robbery and theft convictions, told the court he needed the information “to run his book-making operation in prison,” the news outlet quoted Senior Judge William H. Platt as saying.

The lawsuit was filed in 2013 while Brown was in the state prison at Smithfield, according to PennLive. In it, the 60-year-old accused Kramer of breaching their contract, based on grounds that USA Today stopped printing the gambling odds right after he subscribed to the newspaper.