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Can someone explain consideration? Reliance?

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Consideration is the most important concept. Basically, in order to make a valid contract both sides must give something up of value. If one person is giving something up and the other person is giving nothing, then you are talking about a gift, not a contract.

Leyser says that he found celebrities for Gold and that was his consideration. Gold's consideration was half of his winnings. If Gold agreed to give Leyser half in exchange for Leyser securing celebrities, then they have a contract and Gold will wind up losing $6 million. If he didn't, then he won't.

The most recent court filings suggest that Gold is going to have a hard time proving his story. He claims that he didn't need to get the celebs to get backed by Bodog and that he only offered to give Leyser the money because he felt sorry for him.

He has several material problems with his story. First, the contract from Bodog was sent to him with the contract for the celeb that Leyser arranged. It was all in the same email. That suggests that there was some linkage. Secondly, his own words in the Rounders podcast strongly suggest that Leyser got the celebs to help him get a seat. Thirdly, the phone message that he left suggests that they did have some kind of deal. Finally, Gold's story doesn't much pass the sniff test. He claims that he made a phone call reinforcing his promise to pay what was already certain to be at least half a million to someone who was repeatedly harassing him that he had just met a month before because he is a nice guy. That is a hard sell, I think.

Reliance is a legal concept that says that if you "changed your position" as a result of a promise that someone made you have a claim to enforce the contract.