Crown London Aspinalls Goes on the Offensive to Collect $720K Debt

This is why Crown London Aspinalls has now decided to go after one of its high rollers, Lester Hui, who raked up almost £600,000 ($730,000) in gambling debt on the night of February 9, 2016. He has not made any efforts to honor this payment over the past years, prompting the luxury property to settle matters in court.

Hui Seeks to Have Debt from Crown London Aspinalls Dropped

In a lawsuit filed by the property, Aspinalls alleges that Hui signed the casino a check which was ultimately bounced, prompting the property to seek a way to get its money back. Hui, though, has been willing to put up a fight. He argued that Aspinalls had not honored its obligations under the license issued to the property by the UK Gambling Commission.

He alleged that Aspinalls had broken its social responsibility pledge by purposefully getting him drunk all throughout the night while he played double chance baccarat, and continued to spiral further into debt. Hui even named the drink he was served repeatedly, Moutai, which is a preferred brew among Chinese people.

Hui added that the casino went to extreme measures to get him inebriated and ensure his lapse of judgement. Hui’s attorneys, cited by Evening Standard, argue that the casino made no effort to intervene and stop the gamblers from proceeding, despite his state of mind, which they characterized as “blackout drunk.”

The casino had no legal right to these losses, the attorneys argued. The casino said that this was not true. Hui is also contending that he had warned the casino and asked explicitly for his losses to be limited to no more than £30,000 ($36,000). Aspinalls has denied this charge as well.

Aspinalls May Have Broken New Rules, But Not Old Rules

Aspinalls has been caught in litigation in the past, losing a lawsuit over racial discrimination against an employee who said that customers were repeatedly abusive to dealers of color. The present case though remains an ongoing matter. Aspinalls is unlikely to back down and repeatedly denies wrongdoing, but so does Hui who will seek to prove that the club took advantage of his physical and mental state.

Of course, legislation has come a long way since 2016, and in new guidelines issued by the UK Gambling Commission that came into effect in September 2022, the regulator clearly states that the casino should always intervene in those cases when it suspects that a gambler is acting irrationally or not capable of making clear and logical decisions or is clearly playing outside of their means. This means that even if Aspinalls was a little slow to act in 2016, it did not seem to be breaking any rules.