A VIP gambler trying to welch on his £2m debt to London’s Ritz Club Casino says the devil is responsible for his plight.
The Mayfair casino recently sued billionaire Safa Abdulla Al Geabury for £2m in gambling debts run up during a single night of play in February 2014. Al Geabury has refused to honor his marker – along with over £200k in interest – based on his claim that the casino knew he was a gambling addict yet took no steps to limit his activity. Al Geabury has countersued to recover £3.4m in additional losses at the Ritz.
On Monday, in the first of five scheduled days of testimony at the High Court, Al Geabury confirmed his net worth was over £1b. But Al Geabury, who built his fortune on trading in foreign currency and precious gems, says the Ritz had no right to offer him a £5m line of credit due to his “uncontrollable” urge to gamble.
Geabury had excluded himself from the Ritz in November 2009 but the club says he was allowed back in after signing a form acknowledging that he wasn’t a problem gambler. Al Geabury claims he had “conversation after conversation” with casino staff about “how he couldn’t be controlled and how they had to stop him.”
Following his self-exclusion from the Ritz, Al Geabury says he was a guest at the casino’s luxury box at Emirates stadium during an Arsenal game when he was approached by a casino rep who offered him the line of credit. Al Geabury claimed he initially told the rep that he was “a problem gambler and that I had limited my access to my own money for that reason.”
Al Geabury also had himself excluded from Grosvenor Casinos, Aspinalls Club and all London Clubs International venues. The form covering the latter venues contained Al Geabury’s handwritten assertion that “I have brain problem. I am addict of gambling.” The Court heard that Al Geabury had told a psychiatrist that “the devil made me gamble.”
ISRAELI GAMBLER INDICTED FOR FAKING HIS OWN KIDNAPPING
Meanwhile, an Israeli man has been indicted for giving false evidence, breach of public order and obstructing a police officer’s performance of duty. Beersheba resident Niv Asraf was reported missing in April by his friend Eran Nagauker, who claimed Asraf had entered a Palestinian village near Hebron after their car suffered a flat tire.
The report prompted 3k Israeli soldiers to conduct a search of the area, which eventually found the 22-year-old Asraf hiding out with a sleeping bag and canned food. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that a remorseful Asraf confessed to having staged his own disappearance because he owed tens of thousands of shekels in gambling debts to “well known criminals.” There’s been no word on the devil’s possible role in Asraf’s decision-making process.
