Ritz Casino Suing to Claim Unpaid Debts from Highrollers

It is a common practice for casinos to extend the credit to their regular highroller customers. It is also a common practice for these customers to pay their debts, or markers as they are called, and when that does not happen, a casino can get in a world of pain.

This is exactly what happened to the Ritz Casino in London which was forced to take legal actions against ten of their customers from all over the world. The casino is taking these individuals to court in an attempt to get back the money that was borrowed.

The casino was forced to undertake these actions, reports Evening Standard, after a review of their accounts demonstrated a loss of £12.5 million in 2013. The loss came directly as a result of unpaid debts and, in comparison, the Ritz hotel made a profit of £9.6 million during the same period.

Although the casino was back in black in 2014, Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay, who own the Ritz, still had to continue with legal actions to get back the money owed to the casino. One of more prominent cases was that of Bharat Kalwani, a billionaire who paid for his £5 million worth of gambling fun with a check that later bounced.

Launched in 1978, the Ritz Casino has been known to attract the gamblers from all over the world, but especially from Middle East and Asia. As their spokesman explained, some of the highrollers they host often play for really large amounts of money and they prefer to do it in privacy. It is casino’s job to provide that privacy.

Although the problems do not arise that often, sometimes things don’t pan out and casinos are left with multi-million amounts not accounted for. Legal actions are not something that casinos take lightly as it can potentially hurt their overall image, but sometimes they represent the only available option left.

Apart from the earlier mentioned problem with the bouncing check, the Ritz also had to fight a lawsuit last year, when Nora Al-Daher, wife of the rich Omani politician sued the establishment for £2 million that she lost gambling in April 2012.

The plaintiff claimed that the casino took advantage of her gambling addiction and did nothing to prevent her from accumulating the huge loss. The case was later dismissed by the judge who deemed that she was rich enough for this loss not to be detrimental in any way.

These two and numerous other cases only go to show that no matter how rich one might be, very few people enjoy losing money and if they think they can get away without having to cover their losses, even some of the highrollers will jump at the opportunity.

Photo: oddballdaily