A South Korean casino has been ordered to refund about half the KRW 2.47b (US $2.16m) it earned from two local gamblers over a two-year period. The casino – which was not identified in local media reports but is believed to be the Paradise Walker-Hill Casino recently endorsed by actor Robert De Niro – is supposed to be accessible only by foreigners, but the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the casino had enabled the locals’ entry by issuing them bogus Bolivian residency cards. Only one of South Korea’s 17 casinos – Kangwon Land – permits locals to gamble.
A Vietnamese American gambler will have to wait a little longer to learn whether he can collect a US $55.5m jackpot. In October 2009, Ly Sam believed the slot machine he was playing at the Sheraton Saigon Hotel’s Palazzo Club in Ho Chi Minh City was telling him he’d won $55,542.291.70, despite the fact that (a) none of the reels on his machine were displaying matching symbols, (b) the machine’s maximum payout for the stakes Ly Sam was wagering was listed at a mere $7,500, and (c) the alleged winning amount was displayed on the wrong part of the game’s screen. Dai Duong Joint Venture Company, which operates the Palazzo Club, immediately informed Ly Sam that the result was “invalid,” but Ly Sam wasn’t about to give up that easy. A hearing was scheduled this week at the District 1 People’s Court, but Tuoi Tre News reported the date was postponed after prosecutors claimed they needed more time to investigate. They were likely too busy trying to get to the bottom of the case involving the guy who thought his gumball machine was supposed to dispense pearls and perfectly round rubies, emeralds and sapphires.