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Tycoon Li sued over Macau casino debt
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Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn’s Wynn Macau casino is suing a Chinese tycoon for HK$14 million (US$1.81 million) in gambling debts, the latest case of a casino in the world’s biggest gaming hub using the courts to go after its money.
According to a writ filed in Hong Kong’s High Court this week, the casino is seeking to get the money from tycoon Li Jun who owns Beijing-based autos to property company Abest Group.
Macau, on China’s southern coastline, is the only place in the country where people are allowed to gamble in casinos. But recovering gambling debts on the mainland is illegal.
The case comes at a time when the central government is toeing a strict line on corruption and flagrant excess.
While Macau casinos such as Wynn are hungry for business from rich people from the Chinese mainland, known as “big whale” gamblers, who can bet billions of yuan at a time, they run the risk of not being able to recover debts once the gamblers return home.
Earlier writs
Wynn’s lawsuit against Li follows earlier writs filed by the Venetian Macau, which sued Shanghai businesswoman Zou Yunyu and Xie Xiaoqing, a deputy to the Hubei provincial People’s Congress, in January this year.
Macau casinos lend directly to prominent gamblers only when sufficient due diligence and background checks have been done to ensure the casino has legal grounds to get the money back in overseas jurisdictions, casino executives say.
The writ showed Li’s address as Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel.
A telephone call to Li’s room was answered by a man who confirmed his name was Li Jun but said it was not him who was being sued by Wynn but someone else. He declined to comment further.
This month, Li broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend Shen Xing, one of Hong Kong-based television stars. There was another man in Shen’s house at the time of the break-in that occurred after Shen refused Li’s entrance, according to earlier media reports.
He was released on bail and has been barred from leaving Hong Kong.
Macau, a cash cow for billionaires and US tycoons such as Steve Wynn and Adelson, raked in US$38 billion in gaming revenues in 2012. Over two thirds of Macau’s visitors come from the Chinese mainland.
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