GB: must a drunk player pay nearly 600,000 GBP?

The Crown London Aspinalls is a well renowned private games of chance club. In 2016 a player lost around 600,000 GBP whilst playing Baccarat. The problem: the high roller did not have the money in cash. Instead, he paid the casino by cheque. However, the cheque later bounced. Now the court must decide whether the player must pay the money or not. The player is appealing and is stating that he was drunk.

In November of last year we had reported that a player ran riot in a London casino and the security employee had looked on. In the posh gambling club London Aspinalls things did not go so far that the property was damaged. However, it is disputed whether a player on that evening in 2016 was actually “able to play”.

London Gambling-Club sues High Roller

The renowned Aspinalls, a private gambling club in London is suing one of its former players, Lester Hui. The latter had lost nearly 600,000 GBP on a day in 2016. In the beginning he had a stroke of luck, however by the end of the evening he had a negative balance of 589,724 GBP. On that evening the high roller had issued a cheque addressed to the casino since he did not have enough cash. However, the cheque bounced.

Was the baccarat player too drunk?

The player, who did not win, stated that the cheque had bounced because he was too drunk to be “able to play”. The personnel in the Crown Aspinalls Casino had even motivated him to drink more. Finally, he lost control of himself and of the game and lost unrealistic amounts of money. The gambling club has a different perspective about this and insisting that the contract is fulfilled. The parties could not agree and in 2019 the casino sued the high roller. In a somewhat older article on GambleJoe we had discussed the issue, whether alcohol should also be banned in online casinos.

Not the first legal battle in Aspinalls Casino

Only guests with liquid assets are allowed to play in the Aspinalls Casino, that is guests who gamble with quite high stakes. Some years ago, there was a legal battle between a millionaire entrepreneur from Malaysia and the Aspinalls. This guest had gambled away the amount of nearly 4 million GBP in the Aspinalls casino and he was involved in a court trial. However, the businessman was not highly intoxicated like the high roller in this case.

Conclusion

A British court must now establish whether the wealthy baccarat player was too intoxicated to play on that evening in 2016. At the end of the day, it is the duty of the casino personnel to protect players who are drunk and if in doubt they must be prevented from gambling further.

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