Gambling Addiction

Gambler Loses $650k Then Leaps From 13th Floor To Death

A 51 year old man’s life ended in tragedy after losing HK$5 million ($650,000) playing baccarat on a Hong Kong floating casino before then leaping to his death from the top floor of the 13-deck ship.

On Saturday, the Chinese gambler known as Xu had started his two-day gambling cruise on the ‘SuperStar Aquarius’ and continued gambling at the baccarat table until it closed at 8 a.m. on the Sunday.

The man believed to be a real estate speculator must have gone into a gambling frenzy during his marathon losing session as losing the staggering amount was more than he could handle.

Xu then wandered the deck for an hour before he was seen jumping to his death at around 9.50am., when the ship was south of the Kwo Chau islands.

The rescue services were subsequently alerted and after an hour of searching were able to recover his body at sea.

The ship’s doctor certified him as dead and after the vessel pulled into Hong Kong harbour at 12.30pm, a police spokesman classified the incident as “man overboard,” with no suspicious circumstances.

The Star Cruises gambling vessel was carrying 1,500 passengers at the time and sails daily out of Hong Kong into international waters, away from the gambling restrictions of mainland China.

The Chinese have long been known to enjoy a flutter and now with an increasing disposable income per head, each year £900 million is wagered illegally in China.

As well as boasting an ever increasing number of super-rich in the country of 1.32 billion people, credit card debt in China has also surged by an incredible 14.4% in Q4 of 2010.

Anyone not settling their credit card debt within a three month period can then be subject to a criminal prosecution.



Australia’s Growing Pokies Epedemic Highlighted By Young Mother’s Tragic Death

A South Australian Coroner’s Court has concluded that the tragic suicide of Ms Natt, 24 in 2006 was “a direct result of her inability to cope [with her addiction].”

The young mother of two had worked at the Adelaide Casino from the age of 18, during which time she wrestled with her compulsive addiction to slot machines, otherwise known as ‘pokies’ in Australia, or fruit machines in Britain.

Many of her fellow co-workers had similar problems and were able to stem their own pokies addiction by working at their regular casinos. After work, however, Ms Natt would often find other venues at which to gamble and managed to clock up $100,000 in debts directly related to her addiction. Some nights Ms Natt was even believed to lose up to $1400 after finishing work.

As South Australian Coroner Mark Johns explains:

“Katherine’s suicide note and the evidence taken at this inquest show that she was addicted to gambling on poker machines as a result of which she suffered heavy financial losses and became concerned that she would lose the custody of one or both of her children. In consequence of these matters she took an overdose of paracetamol in what was a clear act of suicide.”

This latest tragedy further highlights what is increasingly being seen as a growing social problem in Australia, where 300,000 people or 15% of poker machine players were considered problem gamblers. Consequently, 40% of all spending was accounted for by these addicts who each lost on average $12,000 each year playing the slots.

Helping to compound the problem is the fact that Australian slot machines are ‘very high impact’ and capable of taking up to $1,500 per hour from their hapless punters.

The coroner has now recommended Prime Minister Julia Gillard receives a copy of his report following Ms Natt’s tragic death, as the government continues considering a range of options to deal with Australia’s growing pokies problem.





Tycoon Loses A Staggering $76.5 Million At Singapore Casino

A report which appeared recently in local newspapers claims one of Singapore’s top 40 richest men lost an incredible US$76.5 million (S$100 million) while playing baccarat at two of Singapore’s casinos.

While the report fails to mention the man’s name, it could in fact be any one of many on the Singapore rich list. However, anyone in the top 33 would surely be smarting after the gambling spree considering their personal wealth is estimated at less than $200 million each.

The two casinos which benefited from the high-roller’s losses at the baccarat tables were the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa. In addition, another high-roller from Sabah in Malaysia, lost US$38.3 million (S$50 million) at the same two casinos over a similar period representing a combined loss for the businessmen of US$115 million.

Commenting on the news, the Director of the Center for Gaming Research at Nevada University, David G. Schwartz said:

“That’s a ton of money. They could have pooled a little more money together and bought the debt on M Resort.”

In the meantime, Tuesday saw shares in Las Vegas Sands soar on the New York Stock Exchange, before closing up a staggering 38% at $39.

Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson (pictured above) has even predicted that the Marina Bay Sands would soon achieve an annual cash flow of around $1 billion. Adelson said he also believed that within just a few years Singapore would replace Las Vegas as the world’s second biggest gambling resort.