Canadian Court Rules on $11.1 Million Casino Debt

A player by the name of Jian Tu has tried tricky tactics to get out of a casino debt to no avail in Canadian court.

To financial transactions easier and more accessible to high rollers, many casinos allow them to play on credit and then settle up after a period of play. This is a common practice that gives casinos more play than they would otherwise get because of the time and difficulty it takes to move large sums of money to and from land-based casinos. However, sometimes players will run up a large debt and try to get out of it, and that's what's happened to a player named Jian Tu.

Details of the Case

Back in early 2013, Jian Tu played with the Marina Bay Sands Casino and was given a line of credit worth just under $10 million. After playing through that and other play, he ended up a total of about $11.1 million in the hole, and he tried to avoid paying his debt by various means. The Marina Bay Sands Casino found Jian Tu in a town outside of Toronto and filed a case against him to seize his assets.

What happened next was arguably a shady move as he moved to have the court case dismissed on the grounds that there was an agreement that any financial disputes between them would be taken care of in Singapore courts. Judge Sean Dunphy of the Ontario Superior Court ruled against this claim, and he also noted that he did not believe claims that Jian Tu never received notice from the Sands on his outstanding debt. Furthermore, the judge went so far as to say that Tu had no legitimate defense in trying to have the court case dismissed and that it was a blatant attempt to delay payment.

The Industry at Large

It's really interesting to see a Canadian court rule on this in the way they did because it's definitely an international matter. It's also going to be really interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months and if officials from Singapore try to intervene.