A Singaporean man who lost tens of millions of dollars at an Australian casino was ordered by the Australian courts to repay the casino A$38.65 million (S$33.7 million), along with its legal fees and interest.
According to a published Queensland Supreme Court judgment, Wong Yew Choy lost A$47.3 million (S$41.17 million) at The Star Gold Coast casino after he was invited to play there between Jul. 26 and Aug. 2, 2018.
Was invited to the casino
The judgment revealed that Wong had previously secured gaming chips on credit at another affiliated casino, The Star Sydney, in May 2017 using a signed blank personal cheque.
The cheque was left with the casino unused, as Wong had settled his gambling losses during the May 2017 trip through other means.
Upon arriving at The Star Gold Coast on Jul. 28, 2018, Wong signed documents to secure gaming chips on credits and authorised his friend to sign cheques for A$40 million (S$34.8 million) and A$10 million (S$8.7 million).
However, by the time Wong finished gaming in the early morning hours of Jul. 31, 2018, he had accrued net gambling losses totalling A$47.3 million (S$41.17 million).
After certain rebates and other allowances under the special junket agreement, the losses were reduced to about A$43 million (S$37.4 million).
According to the judge, he left Australia without settling his debt, which was not unusual.
The casino then attempted to recover the gambling losses using Wong's cheque, which was left at the Sydney casino.
However, the cheque bounced as Wong instructed his bank on Aug. 3, 2018, not to honour any cheque purporting to draw on his account in favour of The Star Gold Coast.
The casino then wrote to Wong demanding payment of about A$43.2 million (S$37.6 million) before taking the matter to court.
Started from a dispute over dealer
The judgment revealed that Wong's lawyers claimed that Wong had not made any payment as the casino's Chief Operating Officer (COO) had apparently verbally waived Wong's losses after he raised an issue about the casino's baccarat dealers.
However, the casino said that they had only offered him a rebate of A$4.5 million (S$3.9 million) after he made the complaint and stopped playing on Jul. 29, 2018.
The casino also claimed that Wong had rejected the offer then and refused to continue playing.
A day later, Wong and the casino's COO had a conversation over the matter.
According to Wong, he and the COO agreed that he would not have to pay for his incurred losses or for any further losses if the baccarat dealers made any more "mistakes" when he resumed gambling.
The COO denied ever making such an agreement with Wong and pointed out that their official letter to Wong the next day did not mention waiving his losses and only assured that they would make no further mistakes.
In her judgment, the judge said that Wong's version of events was not supported by the letter of apology nor evidence adduced in the trial.
For example, she said Wong had testified in the trial that he had believed the COO agreed with him when he said:
"If you want me to pay – if you want me to pay, you must guarantee that no more mistake. If you got any mistake, I won’t pay a single cent."
The judge pointed out that not only does the existence of such a "belief" not prove an "agreement," but it is also not consistent with his defence that the casino had waived his losses.
In view of Wong's lack of defence, the judge found that handing over cheques to the casino in exchange for credits to gamble constitutes a "loan", and Wong is liable to repay the casino as the cheques are dishonoured.
The judge ordered Wong to repay the casino A$38,659,853.22 (S$33,654,994.43), plus interest and costs after A$4,550,000 (S$3,960,485.10) was deducted from the casino's claim for reasons not material to the suit.
Top left photo via Sohu, right photo via The Star Gold Coast/Facebook