UK Appeal Court Rejects Application Which Les Ambassadeurs Club Wrote Against Chinese High-Roller Gambler

UK Appeal Court Rejects Application Which Les Ambassadeurs Club Wrote Against Chinese High-Roller Gambler.(Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash)

Les Ambassadeurs Club, one of the most notable casinos, got involved in a legal tussle as it making efforts to recover more than 10 million pounds from a Chinese high-roller after the latter’s cheques bounced as reported in The Times newspaper.

The land-based casino has now commenced legal action against the Chinese high-roller in a bid to make him honor his reported debts with the elite gambling room. The High Court has issued a ruling that the Chinese high roller, Yu Songbo failed to pay the debt he incurred with Les Ambassadeurs Club in 2018. The gambler who was once considered one of the top 150 rich people in China with a net worth of about 1 billion pounds in 2019 now allegedly has about 19 million Sterling worth of debt.

Unfortunately, the casino was unable to persuade the Appeal Court to freeze Yu’s assets worldwide.

It became clear during the appeal in court that Mr. Yu Songbo began to gamble at the club seven years ago. The businessman cashed 19 million pounds worth of cheques back in 2018, however, according to what the court was told, all the cheques were subsequently dishonored. The casino was able to reach an agreement with Mr. Yu, the Chinese high-roller in 2018, in which he agreed to pay back 16.54 million pounds in installments. However, Mr. Yu was not able to meet even the first installment, and this meant that the full amount ended up becoming due immediately according to the terms in the agreement.

Mr. Yu Made Multiple Payments but It Was Unable to Cover His Full Debt

Les Ambassadeurs Club began legal action against the Chinese high-roller who is also a casino patron in a bid to win a court order to force Mr. Yu to pay back his debt. WeChat, a Chinese social media platform, was allegedly used to serve Mr. Yu court papers by the ending of 2018. The Appeal Court Judge stated that Yu first responded to the calls when he made a few payments to Les Ambassadeurs casino. By the end of 2019, this move reduced Mr. Yu’s debt to 6.5 million pounds in the iconic London gambling room.

However, the gambler did not make any effort to contact the casino for the next 8 months apart from the Lunder New Year greeting he sent to Les Ambassadeurs Club. This made the casino recommence its court proceedings against Mr. Yu. Although efforts were made to reach the Chinese high-roller player via both social media and conventional means, he remained silent. A High Court Judge in November 2020 issued a ruling in favor of the claims made by Ambassadeurs, awarding a little over 10 million pounds to cover the main debt, legal expenses, and interest of the gambling club. The player remained silent even after the ruling, so the casino addressed the High Court later in April 2021 with an application to get a freeze order on Mr. Yu’s assets worldwide.

However, the High Court judge, as mentioned above rejected the application, stating that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the gambler could try to conceal his assets to avoid paying the main court award. Also, Mr. Yu did not appear at the Appeal Court to challenge the ruling, neither did he have any legal representation in the court. The ruling by the lower court was backed by 3 appeal judges.

About Les Ambassadeurs Club: This is a land-based casino in the UK that operates in London’s prestigious West End not far from the Hippodrome Casino and the Victoria Grosvenor Casino; the latter 2 casinos well-known in the live casino sphere because both host Evolution Dual Play Live Roulette tables. The Les Ambassadeurs Club caters for high end players, which is evident from the size of the debt mounted up by the said Chinese gambler in this latest news report.