Self-Excluded Billionaire Sued By Ritz Club Casino For $2m Losses
July 1, 2015 7:59 amDespite signing a self-exclusion order in 2009, billionaire Safa Abdulla Al-Geabury still managed to lose £2 million in just under two hours playing roulette at the exclusive Ritz Club in London on February 19th 2014. The check he signed, however, was returned unpaid and now the London Clubs International owned casino has taken the wealthy gambling addict to the High Court to reclaim the outstanding balance, plus an extra £200,000 in interest.
Nevertheless, Safa Abdulla Al-Geabury insists Mayfair’s Ritz Club was to blame and that he was only able to gain access to gambling funds after the casino courted him with tickets to watch an Arsenal against Bayern Munich soccer game at the Emirates stadium in London, before offering him a £5 million gambling credit line. As the 52 year-old billionaire explains:
“[A casino representative] asked why I was not coming to the Ritz Club. He then suggested I should go to the Ritz Club and said my style of play was very attractive. I told [the man] I was a problem gambler and that I had limited my access to my own money for that reason. He said access to money was not a problem and I would be provided with credit of up to £5million, which I could pay back when I liked.”
Arguing the former currency trader’s case, counsel Kevin Pettican has asserted that The Ritz Club breached its own gaming license terms by extending credit to the self-excluded problem gambler, and that it was the casino which bore responsibility for exerting “undue influence and unconscionable transaction”. Furthermore, a counter claim for £5.4million has been filed against the casino, representing the amount of money Al-Geabury lost gambling at the Ritz Club between October 2010 and February 2014.
Meanwhile, as part of the case the High Court has asked psychiatrists to assess the extent of the Swiss national’s gambling addiction problem, and whether it should have been reasonably apparent to the casino’s employees.