Dear Amanda & Philip,
Our client NagaCorp Ltd is the owner of the Naga World casino in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
NagaCorp is listed on t he Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Here is a link to the company website: www.nagacorp.com
Until now our client has not had any real issues with collecting on debts owed by visitors to the casino. Just recently though they have had two cases and the amounts owed are more than US $ 1 million.
The debts are not owed by the players themselves but are owed by two “junket operators”. The junket operators in this case are two individuals who bring Thai persons to play at the casino.
The junket operators are given what our client calls a “credit cheque facility”. The junket operators sign a blank personal cheque issued from their bank in Thailand made out to the name of the casino. The casino then will give chips to the junket operator and the junket operator in turn will give those chips to the players he has brought to the casino.
Ordinarily getting a personal cheque from a person as a guarantee for a debt is a smart move because if a personal cheque “bounces” then it is a criminal offence involving jail time under Thai law. However, because the underlying debt owed is related to gambling then even if the cheque “bounces” our client could not enforce legal action against the debtor under civil or criminal law in Thailand.
In the past within, at the most, one(1) or two(2) weeks after the junket operator returns to Thailand he will send by a wire transfer for the funds equivalent to value of the chips he received.
However, on these two occasions after the junket operators returned to Thailand they have failed to repay the debts they owe. Our client has tried on a number of occasions to talk to the junket operators to settle the matter but lately the junket operators refuse to answer their phones.
Our client would like to take legal action against the junket operators.
Thai law specifically prohibits taking legal action against a person if the underlying basis for the debt is related to gambling. So even though our client is a fully and properly licensed casino in Cambodia and the debt may be recoverable under the laws of Cambodia no action can be taken against the junket operator in Thailand. The junket operators do not have assets in Cambodia. A judgment of a foreign court is not enforceable in Thailand.
Our client says he knows that the junket operators regularly travel to Hong Kong and are likely to have assets there.
Our client would like to know if it is feasible to take legal action against the junket operators in Hong Kong.
Our client also would like to know if in the future they request the junket operators to sign a Hong Kong based loan agreement and/or made the junket operators give them a personal cheque issued by the junket operators in the future?
I would very much appreciate it if you could consider this and offer your general overall thoughts so that our client can consider whether to take legal action in Hong Kong.