Some days just go from bad to worse – and Australian gambling giant Tabcorp has dropped the clanger of clangers at a time when they are already under severe financial pressure.
The gambling company is today licking its wounds after a high roller left them with a dud cheque for $11.5 million (sterling value £5.14 million).
This could not have come at a worse time for the Australian giant which announced a reduction of 3.7% in profits for the last six months which were reported at $263.2 million.
The group is also looking to raise approximately $300 million to fund a renovation of the Star City Casino in Sydney. It would appear on the surface that it is business as usual for the gambling giant but how did they manage to take an $11.5 million hit?
While the company was forced to announce the $11.5 million loss they were very coy regarding details and refused to disclose the name of the gambler involved.
They did however comment that only 10 to 30 gamblers in the world are known to gamble in the multimillion dollar bracket suggesting that the culprit is part of this group.
“Every now and then this happens," the casino’s Funke Kupper said of the sting. "These are very significant players, therefore it's not unusual to have substantial (cheque-cashing) facilities in place for some of these people."
While the company has effectively written off the $11.5 million they are cautiously optimistic that part or all of the funds will be collected at some stage.
While counterfeit cheques and fraud are commonplace in the casino and gambling industry an $11.5 million hit is one heck of a "hit".
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