By K C Vijayan, Law Correspondent

A SINGAPOREAN businessman who lost US$4.4 million (S$6.3 million) gambling in a Las Vegas casino and then returned here without paying will have to cough up the cash.

In a landmark ruling that may have an impact on whether Singapore's future casinos can recover debts from foreigners, a judge here has enforced an order from an American court that he pay up.

Previously, gambling debts incurred in non-Commonwealth countries could not be recovered here.
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Changing approach to gambling debt

IN THE case of Star Cruise Services v Overseas Union Bank in 1999, Chief Justice Yong Pung How made it clear that a gambling debt was not a loan, and that such losses could not be recovered as loans.

However, while gambling or wagering is not illegal, all contracts to gamble are invalid in a court of law. In other words, the courts would throw out cases involving debts brought to court to be settled, he said.

Following his ruling, the courts rejected a string of claims by gambling operators against gamblers for losses that were disguised as loans.

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