Australian Court Orders Foreign High Roller to Pay Back Gambling Debt

The Supreme Court in Brisbane has ordered high roller Yew Choy Wong to pay back some AUD 38 million to Star Entertainment Queensland. This came in response to the accumulation of significant gambling debt.

Wong Accumulated a Debt He Refused to Pay

Wong, for context, was invited to the Star Gold Coast casino in 2018. He proceeded to lose a staggering AUD 47.3 million in the span of five days. Wong, however, did not settle his account before leaving the country.

Star Gold Coast tried to use a check Wong had provided on a previous gambling trip. Unfortunately, Wong had already contacted his bank, telling its employees to stop payment on any checks from The Star Entertainment Group.

The Australian operator asked the high roller to pay back the AUD 43.2 million he owed but he ignored the company’s pleas. The Singaporean national insisted that he owed no money because of a verbal agreement he made with the casino after vocally objecting to the way his baccarat cards were dealt.

Wong elaborated that the dealing had caused him to stop playing. Then, on July 29, 2018, he was offered AUD 4.5 million rebated by the casino’s president of international gambling, the Singaporean high roller added.

Wong did not accept and, on July 30, allegedly reached an agreement with Paul Arbuckle, the casino’s chief operating officer, who told him that he would not have to pay any losses up until that date. The C-suite officer later denied these claims.

The Court Found No Evidence Star Waived the Debt

The court confirmed that the Star Entertainment team had sent a letter to Wong, apologizing for not following his preferred way of playing. However, the letter in question did not mention any debt waiving of the high roller’s gambling debt.

After considering all available information, Justice Melanie Hindman pointed out that if The Star Entertainment team had waived the debt, it would have mentioned it in the letter. Overall, the court found no proof that backed Wong’s claims.

As a result, Hindman concluded that Wong must pay back the money he owed with interest. The interest would be calculated from September 27, 2018, to the date of the judgments at a rate of $8,819 a day.

Speaking of The Star, the company remains embroiled in trouble in New South Wales where it was recently deemed unsuitable to hold a license, again. Adding to the operator’s woes, its shares were suspended from the ASX because of a missed deadline.

According to recent reports, not even the recent opening of Queens Wharf Brisbane managed to fully mitigate the financial troubles The Star is experiencing.