Casino industry is all about customers who bet heavily and they get special treatment from casinos all over the world. Singapore casino is no different High rollers get lavish treatment along with heft credit lines and this is so much common in casinos all over the world. But what is causing severe headache to Singapore casinos is that most of these high roller customers skip town without paying their debt and there is nothing much for the casinos to do about it. In last three years of Singapore to allow casinos to open and operate here Genting Singapore PLC’s Resorts World Sentosa and Las Vegas Sands Corp’s Marina Bay Sands have become the world’s most renown and even profitable. Half of the VIP gaming tables at these premium casinos is occupied by Chinese nationals.
In a recent survey as well as examination of court documents done by Reuters along with a series of interviews with lawyers and industry experts revealed that several gamblers have run up millions of dollars in debt and then flew back to China and no they are absolutely untouchable. In one such incident Resorts World sued Chinese gambler Kuok Sio Kun in Singapore last year to recover S$2.2 million (1.1 million pounds). In more than six months the casino has not even managed to serve court papers to the Macau based woman.
As per the court documents it shows that after several letters of demand were unanswered for month the casino hired a Singapore law firm to sue the 46-year old. Post this the casino than hired a Macau-based law firm, which advertised in a Chinese-language newspaper, posted the court documents at Kuok’s last known address and went there twice. The Macau lawyer said in the documents, “I have made all reasonable efforts and used all due means in my power to serve the court documents on the defendant, but have not been able to do so.”
As per reports each year millions of mainlanders and gamblers head to Macau which is a special administrative zone of China and the only place in China where gambling is legal. Many others visit Singapore where there are only two gambling resorts where they try their luck and after running high debt comes back to China where they know Singapore casino law cannot extradite them for recovery.
Singapore’s two casinos had estimated combined gross gaming revenue of about $5.9 billion (3.8 billion pounds) last year, according to industry analysts, just below the $6.2 billion pulled in by dozens of casinos on the Las Vegas strip. “It’s the volume and the level of play,” said Adam Weissenberg, global leader of the travel, hospitality and leisure segment at Deloitte & Touche. “The casinos are bringing in people who have million-dollar credit lines. They are bringing in people who are playing million-dollar hands.”
