An appellate panel ruled Friday that Harrah's Atlantic City casino can go ahead with its effort to collect a debt from a self-described compulsive gambler who ran up his credit line with the casino and couldn't pay it back.

The panel affirmed an earlier decision in Atlantic County Superior Court against the defendant, Massimo Dangelico, that the casino company was not under a duty to not extend credit to him because of his compulsion.

“We are satisfied that Harrah's demonstrated the absence of a genuine issue of material fact, and it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law,” the panel said in its ruling upholding a nearly $188,000 judgment.