{"id":8731,"date":"2015-03-12T15:40:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T15:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2015\/03\/12\/united-kingdom-ritz-casino-sues-high-roller-clients-after-gambling-debts-lead-to-12-5-million-loss\/"},"modified":"2015-03-12T15:40:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T15:40:14","slug":"united-kingdom-ritz-casino-sues-high-roller-clients-after-gambling-debts-lead-to-12-5-million-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2015\/03\/12\/united-kingdom-ritz-casino-sues-high-roller-clients-after-gambling-debts-lead-to-12-5-million-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"(United Kingdom) Ritz Casino sues high-roller clients after gambling debts lead to \u00a312.5\u2009million loss"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"\"
\n\tGambler: Nora Al-Daher last year lost a bid to sue the casino<\/span><\/p>\n

\tJAMIE DUNKLEY <\/p>\n

\tThe Ritz Casino has been dragged deep into the red by unpaid gambling debts that have forced it to launch a series of multi-million-pound legal cases against wealthy high-roller clients.<\/p>\n

\tThe Piccadilly club, which is owned by the billionaire twin brothers Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, took High Court action against 10 individuals from all over the world last year, according to documents seen by the Evening Standard.<\/p>\n

\tBy contrast it only started proceedings against one person in each of the previous two years.<\/p>\n

\tThe legal offensive came after accounts for The Ritz Hotel Casino Ltd revealed that it made an operating loss of almost \u00a312.5\u2009million in 2013 as a result of \u201csignificant non-recoverable gaming debts\u201d. The Ritz hotel made a \u00a39.6\u2009million profit at the same time. <\/p>\n

\tThe accounts go on to say that \u201calthough full provision has been made against these debts the directors are confident they will be recovered\u201d.<\/p>\n

\tThey also show turnover jumped between 2012 and 2013 from \u00a321.5\u2009million to almost \u00a332\u2009million.<\/p>\n

\tThe most high-profile of the legal actions that followed the losses involved billionaire Bharat Kalwani, who was accused of paying for a gambling spree in October 2013 with a \u201cworthless\u201d \u00a35\u2009million bouncing cheque.<\/p>\n

\tThe Singaporean construction and property magnate reached an 11th-hour settlement with The Ritz last year.<\/p>\n

\tThe casino last year also won a long-running battle with a wealthy gambling addict, who had tried to sue after losing \u00a32\u2009million in April 2012.<\/p>\n

\tNora Al-Daher claimed the casino should have refused to give her extra credit. Judge Anthony Seys Llewellyn threw out the case last August, ruling that she had \u201cunimaginable wealth\u201d and could afford the losses.<\/p>\n

\tDespite the losses in 2013, the highest paid director of the casino \u2014 who is not named but is likely to be chief executive Roger Marris \u2014 received \u00a3459,000 in pay and pension contributions and the board as a whole more than \u00a31\u2009million.<\/p>\n

\tA Ritz Casino spokesman said: \u201cWhilst we enjoy very good relationships with the vast majority of our customers, on some rare occasions it is unfortunately necessary to take legal action in order to recover outstanding debts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe casino has been based in the old ballroom of the hotel since its launch in 1978 and is well known for attracting gamblers from the Middle East, China and elsewhere in Asia.<\/p>\n

\n

Replies:<\/h3>\n

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Gambler: Nora Al-Daher last year lost a bid to sue the casino JAMIE DUNKLEY The Ritz Casino has been dragged deep into the red by unpaid gambling debts that have forced it to launch a series of multi-million-pound legal cases…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}