会不会是咱国人呢?
Tabcorp takes $11.5m hit from dud cheque
January 29, 2009 - 1:59PM
Gaming giant Tabcorp Holdings has taken a big hit of $11.5 million to its accounts after a high-rolling gambler passed a dud cheque at one of the company's casinos.
Releasing its financial results for the first half of the 2008/09 financial year, Tabcorp said on Thursday that it had made a bad debt provision of $11.5 million in respect of one customer.
Tabcorp chief executive Elmer Funke Kupper told reporters that Tabcorp did not provide credit to players but did provide cash-chequing facilities.
Asked if the player in question had cashed a cheque for $11.5 million and the cheque had bounced, Mr Funke Kupper said: "Yep''.
Mr Funke Kupper declined to identify the player or the country of origin, but said the gambler was an international player known throughout the region.
"These are people who play very large amounts of money over time,'' Mr Funke Kupper said. "They tend to be baccarat players, in some cases playing between a hundred and three hundred thousand dollars a hand, so these are very significant players.
"And therefore it is not unusual to have substantial facilities in place for some of these people.''
Mr Funke Kupper said that worldwide there were perhaps 10 to 30 players who gambled such big stakes.
He declined to say which casino the player in question had visited or whether or not the player had visited Tabcorp casinos on previous occasions.
"But you should assume that players of this nature are well known around the region,'' he said.
Tabcorp was seeking to recover the money owed to it.
"Like any business you expect your money back,'' Mr Funke Kupper said.
Players who owed Tabcorp casinos money were barred from gambling at Tabcorp venues.
Mr Funke Kupper said Tabcorp wanted to expand its business attracting international gamblers but become less reliant upon very large single players.
"The reality of this business is every now and then you get this, we got it, we make no excuses for it ... it happened early in the half, nothing else happened during the half,'' he said.
AAP