2024-11-15 21:54:29
An Australian court decided on Monday, September 9, that a Singaporean businessman who accrued a substantial gambling debt at a Gold Coast casino must pay more than A$38 million (US$25.3 million). Wong Yew Choy, who lost his money at Queensland's Star Gold Coast casino, was also ordered to pay the casino's expenses and interest from September 2018 by Judge Melanie Hindman of the Supreme Court in Brisbane. In July 2018, Dr. Wong received an invitation to The Star casino, according to court filings. Then, in a matter of days, he would lose A$47,300,000 playing a casino card game called baccarat. However, the losses were lowered to A$43,209,853.22 following reimbursements and other adjustments made under a contract with the casino. After that, Dr. Wong departed Australia without paying the casino, which the judge said was "not unusual." Dr. Wong's blank check from a prior gaming excursion to The Star Sydney was used by The Star Gold Coast to collect the debt. The check, however, bounced because, in August 2018, Dr. Wong gave his bank instructions not to honor any checks that The Star Gold Coast took out of his account. Dr. Wong declined to pay the casino's written demands, claiming he had a deal with Paul Arbuckle, the online casino chief operating officer, that exempted him from paying for any losses up until July 2018. In order to recoup the A$43 million, the casino filed a lawsuit against Dr. Wong in 2019, taking the case all the way to Singapore's High Court. In 2020, the judge dismissed the lawsuit, stating that certain factual questions could not be resolved without a trial. According to court records, Dr. Wong played baccarat at The Star but had repeatedly complained about the way the casino dealers gave him the cards. After those instances, Dr. Wong originally quit betting, and the casino acknowledged that he had good cause to be upset. However, he later started playing again. The COO later sent a letter of apologies for the online gambling baccarat occurrences after speaking with Mr. Arbuckle and Dr. Wong. According to Dr. Wong, Mr. Arbuckle verbally agreed during their talk that the Singaporean would not be responsible for any damages sustained up to that point. Waiving the businessman's debts was not mentioned in the letter of apology, and Mr. Arbuckle denied ever having such an agreement with Dr. Wong. Justice Hindman declared, "The letter of apology and any other evidence presented during the trial do not support the alleged agreement pleaded by Dr. Wong." The judge also pointed out that Dr. Wong's spoken testimony throughout the trial differs significantly from the supposed agreement he pleaded. According to court filings, the casino deducted A$4,550,000 from Dr. Wong's A$43,209,853.22 loss for reasons that are not currently relevant. Therefore, A$38,659,853.22 plus interest and expenses is the amount that the casino is requesting from Dr. Wong.