Casino operator Las Vegas Sands has won a court victory over a deadbeat gambler who tried to stiff the company’s Singapore property out of nearly US$2m.
In a summary judgment issued last month, Singapore’s High Court ordered 70-year-old local businessman Darwin Liman to pay the Marina Bay Sands casino $1.92m. The Straits Times reported that the sum was the single largest judgment against a deadbeat gambler that the casino won in 2016.
Liman had been an MBS regular since the property opened in 2010, but his luck ran out in June 2015, when the casino issued him credit worth $2m and he promptly lost the lot. The money was supposed to be repaid within two weeks but it wasn’t until November 2015 that Liman made his first payment of $50k, while his high-roller status entitled him to a discretionary rebate of just under $29k.
But Liman made no further payments, prompting MBS to unleash their lawyers. MBS attorneys argued that Liman’s legal eagles had raised no legitimate arguments as to why he shouldn’t be required to honor his gambling marker, beyond his claim that he didn’t actually owe the casino anything.
Drew & Napier lawyer Kelvin Tan argued that there was no need for a full trial, as Liman’s defense “amounts to nothing more than a bare denial of the claim” while challenging MBS to “show proof” of his debt. With ample evidence of Liman’s financial agreement with MBS, the court agreed that Liman had failed to demonstrate the possibility of mounting a reasonably acceptable defense, and thus granted MBS’ bid for summary judgment.
Liman has had better luck at other casinos, including a $2.04m score in 2004 at Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp’s original gaming property on a barge floating on the Mekong River outside Phnom Penh.
MBS has had its share of run-ins with high-rollers who attempted to roll away without paying their debts. But the biggest may have come one year ago, when Chinese media reported that MBS was suing two Chinese executives, including Xiao Wenge, former chairman of US-based DMG Entertainment & Media, for unpaid markers worth over S$17m (US $11.8m).
