LAS VEGAS (Bloomberg) — Bellagio LLC, which operates a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas strip, has sued accused Ponzi mastermind Allen Stanford for $258,480 in gambling debts.

Stanford, who is fighting criminal and civil allegations he swindled investors of more than $7 billion, signed 14 markers indicating he owes the casino more than a quarter-million dollars for gaming losses during an eight-day period in January.

The markers "were deposited by Bellagio and returned by Mellon United National Bank" stamped with the designations "SIGM, Signature Not Like on File and/or RTM", all indications the bank wouldn't honour Stanford's IOUs, Bruce Aguilera, Bellagio's general counsel, said in a lawsuit filed in Las Vegas state court yesterday. The debt carries an 18 percent annual interest rate, according to suit.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Stanford, several associates and three of his companies on February 17, accusing him of paying investors "improbable if not impossible" returns on certificates of deposit at Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.

A Dallas federal judge immediately froze all of Stanford's corporate and personal assets until the SEC suit is resolved. The casino submitted its markers to Stanford's bank two days after the freeze went into effect.

Aguilera didn't immediately respond to voice messages or e-mails seeking comment on the lawsuit. Stanford's criminal defence attorney Dick DeGuerin has previously said Stanford was on vacation in Vegas with his fiancé during the period the gambling debts were incurred.

"They were signed in January before the SEC filed suit and the freeze was instituted," DeGuerin said in an e-mail today. "The Bellagio should sue the receiver. It's a valid debt and should be paid along with the others, but good luck in getting the receiver to do it. Maybe the Bellagio should revert to the time-honoured method of Vegas debt collection and send someone to make the receiver an offer he can't refuse, or just break his legs."