"Nice Guy" Behavior: Read the TL; DR 🤣😂🤣

Crosspost from r/legaladvice

Regular customer tipped me scratch tickets for years. I finally won something, and they are threatening legal action because I don't want to give them a cut. [FL]

Florida.

I worked as head bartender for a local restaurant for a number of years, and there was a regular customer who was there very frequently. I interacted with this customer frequently: they tipped exclusively in scratch tickets and specifically called to ask for my schedule, asked me out on multiple occasions, et cetera. Probably about forty years my senior. If you've ever watched The Good Place, this guy was IRL Brent.

I won something from the scratch ticket that wasn't five/ten dollars: the final amount after taxes was about three months salary for me, and I was making good money. I specifically didn't tell the customer not because I thought they would want it but because I didn't want them feeling like I owed them something or that I should be thankful towards them. I did tell a coworker, and it got to him through the grapevine.

The next time I came in, he congratulated me and asked how we wanted to split it. I sternly told him that it was my tip and long story short he went to my manager, who took his side. I quit (had been planning to anyway since I'm about to finish school).

My manager GAVE THIS GUY MY EMAIL (I'm curious on the legality of this too) and he (customer) emailed me saying that if I didn't agree to give him 50% he'd take legal action.

Do I need to worry about taking his threat seriously? Is there anything I can or should do to protect myself? I'm assuming this is a bluff but I want to have my bases covered.

TL;DR: Me drink lady. Mean man who buy many drinks gives me scratchy scratchy papers instead of green paper for many days. One day scratchy scratchy says me get a lot of green paper, but man no like this when he hear because he want some of green paper too. Me say no, green mine, so he say that he take swift and immediate legal action if me no comply. Me no need comply, right?