by Conrad Raj 05:55 AM Oct 12, 2010 SINGAPORE
Sources have told Today that a local businessman, who appeared on the latest Forbes list of Singapore's 40 richest people, recently lost a total of $100 million at the two casinos here.
While significant, this is a fraction of his estimated net worth. But he's not the only high-roller to discover that "the house always wins".
Around the same time, sources said, another tycoon from the timber-rich East Malaysian state of Sabah lost $50 million here.
"These guys can well afford the losses," said one high-roller who is a regular at Singapore's two casinos - at Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands.
However, while gamblers losing $10 million to $20 million over a few sessions in the rooms reserved for high-rollers are no longer a rare breed, the source said that whispers of these two businessmen parting with a total of $150 million have raised more than a few eyebrows, even among the regulars.
News of these two multi-million-dollar casino losers comes amid an update that local businessman Henry Quek, who lost $26 million during a three-day gambling spree, is said to have settled his debts.
Mr Quek, the managing director of Far Ocean Sea Products, a seafood processing and trading company operating out of Fishery Port Road in Jurong, had initially considered legal action against Resorts World Sentosa for granting him credit too easily.
It is understood that the casino had shaved $6 million off his debt initially and another $3 million after the media reports about the case.
Mr Quek is said to have settled the rest of the outstanding debt. Unlike Mr Quek, the two latest multi-million-dollar losers, who are believed to have put their money at gaming tables of both Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands, are said to have absorbed their losses without any complaints.
Against the backdrop of such mega-losses by individual high-rollers, analysts say it is not surprising Mr Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Las Vegas Sands, parent of Marina Bay Sands, predicted that Singapore could, in a few years, overtake Las Vegas as the world's second-largest gaming centre behind Macau.
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