Casinos easily track their patrons and how much they are up/down
They do? And isn't there a hostload of illegal joints, bookies and dealers where there are no receipts and/or control?
How about: I took all the money out in cash, because I'd rather gamble it away than let that bitch get it, then I went to Las Vegas, and I lost some 10K at Casino Royale (provable), then I went for a drink in a bar, where I met a gentleman who invited me to a private high stakes texas holdem party, and I got really drunk and lost the whole lot.
How could it be proved that the cash still exists? Would the judge rule that the man has to pay half of what he had prior to the trip? What would the difference be in reality whether a business slowly drained money away or if you lost it all in a moment of foolishness? The end reality would be that it was all lost permanently.
Perhaps the phrase 'I'd rather gamble it away than give it to the ex-wife' wouldn't go well with the court, but I can think of a number of other scenarios where a man could "reduce" his net worth without the money being lost forever.
I would think such cases could be really hard to investigate. Don't you need very hard proof the money still exists?
That would be considered dissipation at best if it happens after the marriage having been irretrievably broken down
You could gamble it all away, but you still owe the money. That is because it is not your money, it is your ex-wife's money.
What if you were to gamble it away when the marriage was falling apart beyond repair but divorce had not been brought up yet?
It would be usually be considered dissipation as well so you would owe half the money you lost to your ex-wife
You can create a situation where you can argue that it is not dissipation with a reasonable chance to convince the judge but most of the time if you gamble the money after the marriage have been irretrievably broken down, it would be considered dissipation
In some cases you could argue that the marriage wasn't irretrievably broken down when you gamble the money away and that your wife knew you were a gambler and didn't do anything to stop you
