Vietnam gambler wins US$55m on casino jackpot case
An American man who hit a $55 million jackpot on a slot machine in a five-star Vietnamese hotel has won his lawsuit against the casino after it refused to pay out, a court official said.
A court in southern Ho Chi Minh City found in favor of the gambler on Monday, the clerk said.
Media reports said the hearing found that the man should be allowed to collect his winnings, which the casino said were more than one thousand times the supposed maximum from the machine and had been generated by a fault.
According to state-run Thanh Nien newspaper, the man — identified as Ly Sam — saw the figure US$55,542,291.70 flash up as he played on the slot machine at the casino inside the city’s luxury Sheraton hotel in October 2009.
The report said he took pictures of the machine and asked other gamblers present at the time to sign statements saying they had witnessed his win.
But the house manager refused to provide a written confirmation of the eye-popping sum and the casino later said it was invalid because the gaming machine had unspecified faults, the report said.
The owner of the casino told the court the maximum prize was only supposed to be US$46,000, so it was unacceptable that Sam wanted a payment of over US$55 million, Thanh Nien said.
The court rejected the firm’s argument, saying it had failed to show evidence of the fault in the machine. Company representatives said they plan to appeal the ruling, the report added.
Source AFP
What else could have the court done?
• A different verdict would have sent a bad signal for casino business destination in Vietnam. Vietnamese and Asians are big gamblers. Casino industry has development plan to invest billions in Vietnam.
The sad thing is that only foreigners and Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) are allowed to gamble in the casinos in Vietnam. Ordinary Vietnamese are prohibitted from playing in the casinos in their own country. Vietnamese society is the most segregated society than ever because the regime wants to control the freedom and rights that foreigners do enjoy like full access to cyberspace and facebook, whereas Vietnamese cannot access to those censored sites. It reminds the segregation times of colonial powers in China, pre-civil right era in the USA, and Apartheid.
http://eyedrd.org/2013/01/vietnamese-american-ly-sam-won-55-5-m-jackpot-trial-after-3-years.html
Palazzo Club inside the 5-star Sheraton Saigon Hotel should own up to the implicit legal contract between the casino and the customers when they gamble. The casino at Sheraton Saigon Hotel should do the right and moral thing is to fulfill its contract with is customers and Mr. Ly Sam.
Otherwise, the casino has 3 legal recourses:
• Sue the macchine or software company for malfunction
• File for bankruptcy.
• Legal appeal course, which is not the right course and bad publicity, which the Sheraton Saigon Hotel should not carry the burden, customers shoul boycott the casino and the hotel all together because they would have failed to fulfill the end of the bargain of the contract.
http://eyedrd.org/2013/01/55-5-m-casino-win-at-sheraton-saigon-hotel-can-set-a-world-record.html