{"id":551128,"date":"2026-07-30T11:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/551128\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:10:17","slug":"gambler-sues-skycity-court-told-33-million-lost-man-spent-nearly-half-a-billion-at-casino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/551128\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambler sues SkyCity: Court told $33 million lost, man spent nearly half a billion at casino"},"content":{"rendered":"

SkyCity had to shut the Auckland casino for five days<\/a> in 2024 after an Internal Affairs prosecution for breaches of host responsibility.<\/p>\n

Spring said his client was not demanding wide-ranging suppression.<\/p>\n

He invoked an old muzzle-loading firearm, known to scatter its shot in a wide spread, as the antithesis of his client\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than a blunderbuss or a shotgun, we\u2019re using a sniper\u2019s rifle or a razor,\u201d he told Justice Sally Fitzgerald, the Chief High Court Judge.<\/p>\n

Spring said the client only wanted his name and address suppressed from publication, to protect him and his family from denigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client isn\u2019t a celebrity. He\u2019s an average man in the street, just a little richer than most.\u201d<\/p>\n

What mattered was the public interest in gambling, especially problem gambling, Spring said.<\/p>\n

The man is of Chinese origin. Spring said in Chinese culture, casino gambling for high stakes was viewed with odium and as destructive to family life.<\/p>\n

He suggested SkyCity had an ulterior motive for opposing name suppression.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extraordinary … They\u2019ve gone to the trouble of engaging a Chinese law firm to dredge up a whole heap of material on my client.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spring said his client at one point early this decade was \u201cthe biggest customer by a factor of 50\u201d at the Auckland casino.<\/p>\n

He said the casino company viewed his client as vulnerable and sensitive.<\/p>\n

Although the man had chosen to gamble, he was entitled to have the protection of continuous play rules, Spring said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was deprived of those protections for a period of three years and SkyCity profited from that to the tune of 33 million dollars.\u201c<\/p>\n

Spring argued a lack of protection, not wanton self-indulgence, influenced his client to become a problem gambler.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have him assessed by a psychologist,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a rational commercial act to spend money of that magnitude on gambling. It goes beyond leisure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spring said the man\u2019s gambling demonstrated ill-discipline, and he had since gone cold turkey, but still had the pathology.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery scintilla of the case, every permutation of the evidence, every wrinkle in the story can be published intact. Simply the name is anonymised,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cA man\u2019s compulsive gambling and its effect on his wife and children is as private as information gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

SkyCity: Open justice required<\/p>\n

SkyCity counsel Tim Mullins took issue with suggestions the company had an ulterior motive.<\/p>\n

He said the public had a right to know who was suing whom.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkyCity just has the same open justice starting point … Absent specific adverse effects, the principle of open justice won\u2019t be displaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullins said the man\u2019s embarrassment was not enough to justify his name being suppressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the source of the embarrassment here?\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s happened at a public casino in the middle of town in Auckland in front of various people who were there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullins said the public had a wide variety of views about gambling, vaping, smoking and other behaviours.<\/p>\n

He said open justice must be the starting point and to decide otherwise would set a bad precedent for civil cases.<\/p>\n

Mullins said the facts showed this was not a case of a casino behaving badly.<\/p>\n

Justice Fitzgerald reserved her decision on the plaintiff\u2019s application for interim suppression, meaning she will deliver it at a future date.<\/p>\n

His name and address remain suppressed.<\/p>\n

John Weekes<\/a> is a business journalist covering aviation. He also has experience covering consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SkyCity had to shut the Auckland casino for five days in 2024 after an Internal Affairs prosecution for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[51582,1975,2177,8613,138,6874,1349,270473,2964,5836,5158,1132,300,11692,111,139,69,8830,8529,12633,5424,133650,6859,303],"class_list":["post-551128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-51582","tag-at","tag-average","tag-billion","tag-business","tag-casino","tag-court","tag-gambler","tag-half","tag-lost","tag-man","tag-million","tag-money","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rich","tag-skycity","tag-spent","tag-street","tag-sues","tag-told","tag-very"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}