Quick return: ‘Pacman’ Jones pays up on $20,000 owed to casino on Strip

Suspended NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones paid $20,000 he owed to a Strip casino, plus penalties to the district attorney's office, to settle a criminal bad check case, authorities said Friday.

"We filed a criminal complaint. Within 24 hours, Mr. Jones found a way to make restitution," Clark County District Attorney David Roger said. "Case closed."

Jones, 24, paid $20,000 to cover three casino markers he received Sept. 3 at Caesars Palace but failed to repay, said prosecutor Bernie Zadrowski, chief of the district attorney's bad check unit. Jones also paid $1,675 in DA office fees and penalties.

In Nevada, unpaid casino markers, or loans to gamblers, are treated as bad checks and are turned over to the district attorney for prosecution.

Zadrowski said another $3,000 penalty cited in court documents filed Friday would have been added if a felony theft warrant had been issued. No warrant was issued.

"It's unfortunate that a nonstory became public," Jones' lawyer, Manny Arora said after the money was paid.

Arora acknowledged Jones owed the debt to Caesars Palace and the district attorney's office, but said he had been quietly trying to arrange payment.

He accused Roger of filing the criminal complaint against Jones after a similar case involving retired NBA star Charles Barkley won widespread notoriety earlier in the week.

Roger denied Arora's claim.

"In Mr. Jones' case, we were working with him since February to obtain restitution," Roger said. "We determined he was not acting in good faith, and we filed a criminal complaint."

Roger threatened to file criminal charges against Barkley before he settled his debt by paying $400,000 to reimburse the Wynn Las Vegas resort for four casino markers he received in October, Zadrowski said. Barkley also paid $40,000 in district attorney statutory and processing fees.

Gary Thompson, a spokesman for Caesars Palace owner Harrah's Entertainment declined comment on Jones' case, which was first reported Friday by the Las Vegas Sun.

Jones' Labor Day 2007 visit to Caesars came while he was facing felony coercion charges for his role in a strip club triple shooting that left a man paralyzed in Las Vegas in February 2007.

Jones pleaded no contest Dec. 6 to conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct in a deal that reduced two felony charges of coercion stemming from the strip club shooting. The coercion charges each carried a possible sentence of one to six years in prison.

In return, Jones agreed to tell police what he knew about the gunman. Jones never acknowledged any role in the shooting.

The alleged gunman, Arvin Kenti Edwards, 29, of Renton, Wash., was arrested in April after Jones picked him from a police lineup. Edwards remained jailed Friday in Seattle on $1.02 million bail pending a June 4 extradition hearing, a King County prosecutor's office spokesman said.

The NFL has no policy against players gambling in casinos, as long as they do not wager on NFL games. However, the league is closely watching Jones, who was indefinitely suspended last season by commissioner Roger Goodell and was recently traded from the Tennessee Titans to the Dallas Cowboys.

"We're aware of it and we are looking into it," league spokesman Greg Aiello said Friday.