RWS to Provide Penalty for Detaining Patron
On finding Resorts World Sentosa as guilty of wrongfully detaining a benefactor for 46 minutes without proving any wrong done by him, the High Court intervened to let the casino group award him $46K. It was due to his imprisonment, misery & medical expenditure.
Justice Choo Han Teck in unearthing Resorts World Sentosa’s responsibility for the detention of Mr Adesh Kumar Goel clarified the scope of a casino’s authority to take any severe action as per the recommendation Casino Control Act.
The justice has also elaborated that the casino has not confirmed that it has legal authority to keep in custody. In fact, operators of casinos in Singapore are needed to take into consideration what the steps are on priority basis to make it certain that the gamblers are not intoxicated, unruly or violent. This very act does not allow the casinos to have any legitimate basis or command to confine its clients. It was not in any way the case with Mr. Goel as he had not committed to intended to commit any specific so that he would be confined until the arrival of the police. In spite of not committing any offence, he was not informed of the reasons for which he was detained. Even it was alleged that the casino staffs had not instantly alerted the police.
Mr. Goel, being a permanent dweller here had been engaged in gambling activities at RWS for almost 12 hours. Abruptly, a disagreement caused between him & a couple over $50 chip in April 2012. With the help of the casino, both sides got separated. Mr Goel was then taken to a side room to calm down. Despite several attempts to leave the place, he was being restrained by employees & auxiliary police officers who are usually deployed to safeguard the casino. He ultimately called the police & left after their appearance. It was later found that he got his shoulder fractured which according to his version resulted from being manhandled.
By means of Lawyer Abraham Vergis, he litigated RWS for false detention the results that ensued. He further demanded aggravated damages too in case of loss of earnings amounting to over $400000. RWS, as being defended by Senior Counsel N. Sreenivasan, rejected the claims & brought in the SATS Security Services as the third party in the suit. The APOs who were involved in this case were from SATS, whose legal representative Paul Seah claimed Mr. Goel’s statement was bogus. The case of assault and violent force was not also taken into consideration.
On checking the CCTV footage & hearing remaining evidence, the judge came into conclusion that the judgment on the part of the casino staffs was very poor. Even the lawyers also expressed that officers and APOs should have understood that they lacked legal authority to arrest Mr Goel.
