Gambling Addict Lured, Court Told
The Age
Wednesday September 26, 2007
CROWN Casino lured a gambling addict back to its elite rooms after the man asked to be banned from the venue and confessed to staff he had fraudulently obtained money to fund his habit, a court has been told.
A lawyer for Crown Casino yesterday admitted staff offered Harry Kakavas free money and free transport to return to the casino in 2005, despite a previous self-imposed ban on him attending the premises. But Jeff Sher, QC, for the casino, said the multimillionaire Gold Coast property developer was never forced to accept its gifts or gamble his money."Every single time he had the capacity to refuse it," Mr Sher told the Victorian Supreme Court yesterday during an application to strike out Mr Kakavas' $30 million law suit against the casino. "No one made him gamble. Every time he did, he knew he might lose."Mr Kakavas is suing Crown Casino and its chief operating officer John Williams for $30 million he claims to have gambled during a 14-month binge, which ended in August last year. He is also suing them for damages. The court heard Crown offered Mr Kakavas lavish inducements, including transportation on its private jet and hundreds of thousands of dollars to return to the casino in 2004 after he had obtained an exclusion order, banning himself from the premises in 1995.His lawyer, Cliff Pannam, QC, said the offers, which included a promise of a 20 per cent rebate on all losses, came after staff learnt Mr Kakavas had been betting and losing large sums of money in Las Vegas. "They deliberately set out to identify a punter they knew they could win large sums of money from," he said. Dr Pannam said the enticements also followed the NSW Commissioner of Police banning Mr Kakavas from Star City Casino in Sydney in 2000. He said the ban meant Mr Kakavas could not legally enter Crown Casino in Melbourne and that any money he gambled thereafter should have been forfeited to the state. In a fresh statement of claim tendered to the Victorian Supreme Court, Mr Kakavas also claims he met senior staff at Crown Casino in late 1994 or 1995 to tell them he dishonestly obtained $286,125 from Esanda Finance Corporation Ltd to fund his gambling habit.After hearing Crown's argument to have Mr Kakavas' suit struck out, Justice David Harper questioned whether he should be looking at policy regarding problem gamblers. "Pathological gamblers ought to be protected from themselves," he said. "There's a social responsibility for operators of these establishments to ensure that they do not actively create harm by their commercial operations."The hearing continues today.
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