Compulsive gambler loses another round

Australian self-confessed compulsive gambler Harry Kakavas has lost another attempt to void his obligations to casinos on grounds that he is a problem gambler.
The high stakes gambler has just lost another courtroom confrontation – this one in the Australian territroy of Victoria – and has been ordered to pay a Bahamas-based land casino US$ 1 million.
Justice Jennifer Davies heard evidence that Kakavas was given a $US 1 million line of credit when he visited the Paradise Island Casino’s baccarat tables during his November 2006 honeymoon.
He lost it all in five hours of gambling.
The casino sued him in the Victorian Supreme Court to recover the money plus interest. Kakavas argued the casino knew or ought to have known that he suffered from the psychiatric condition of problem gambling and took “unconscientious advantage of his inability to resist the urge to gamble”.
Justice Jennifer Davies wasn’t having any of it, however, and said: “The evidence did not show, in my view, that the casino took unconscientious advantage of Mr Kakavas’ condition. The evidence fell far short of demonstrating that the casino deliberately exploited and took advantage of Mr Kakavas’ condition.”
Kakavas had gone to the Bahamas of his own volition, she added.
In December last year , Kakavas failed in a bid to sue Melbourne’s Crown Casino to recoup Aus$ 35 million he gambled away. He was ordered to re-pay $1 million he owed Crown.

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