Gable Tostee cries sexism following casino ban after alleged strangling

A Gold Coast man who was acquitted after being charged with murdering his Tinder date in 2014 has launched a case against The Star for banning him from the Gold Coast casino.

Eric Thomas – who changed his name from Gable Tostee in 2015 while on trial following the death of Warriena Wright – claimed he was banned from the casino because he is a man.

The banning followed an incident with a female guest in April 2022.

Eric Thomas, who changed his name from Gable Tostee while on trial over the death of Warriena Wright.Credit: Glenn Hunt

Staff reported entering a woman’s hotel room and finding Thomas standing over her, fighting her while she was “on her back with her dress up over her hips”.

The woman later told police Thomas had strangled her, and obtained a domestic violence order against him.

Thomas suffered bruises and bite marks, and was taken to Southport Watchhouse while the order was processed.

When applying to have the ban lifted in 2023, he told The Star that police had notified him they would not pursue charges over the alleged assault, and said the woman had suffered a “dissociative event”, which caused the incident.

He now claims the casino ban is discriminatory and attacks him because he is a man, and is seeking to overturn the decision and have his membership at The Star reinstated.

In a hearing on April 10, Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal senior member Samantha Traves refused to reinstate Thomas’ membership before additional hearings later in the year, scheduled for September and November.

“On the material before me, there is no evidence to suggest that the respondents acted the way that they did on the basis Mr Thomas was male,” Traves said.

The Star maintained it had a common law right to ban Thomas, and would continue to enforce the ban based on a “very real prospect” that Thomas could endanger other guests and bring the Gold Coast casino “adverse publicity”.

The company said Thomas’ almost three-year delay in challenging the decision supported maintaining the status quo, and therefore upholding the ban.

It also pointed to Thomas’ history of attracting attention for controversial behaviour as examples of “media scrutiny” that could hurt the company’s reputation in the case of another incident.

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