High roller claims banned gambler stole $6.3m win, blames casino

A Chinese high roller with links to Queensland claims a $6.3 million casino win was stolen by a “banned gambler” with “substantial debts” and has accused the casino of helping the alleged thief by breaking into a safe, a court has heard.

A Chinese millionaire claims his casino winnings were stolen by a banned gambler.

A CHINESE high roller gambler with links to Queensland claims the $6.3 million he won at the casino was stolen by a “banned gambler” with “substantial debts” and accuses the casino of helping the alleged thief by breaking into a safe, a court has heard.

Linong Ma, 53, a millionaire from both Hong Kong and Shanxi province in mainland China, asked the Supreme Court in Brisbane to freeze two palatial Sydney homes owned by millionaire Xiongming Xie, 39, from Hunters Hill, who he claims stole the money he won from Adelaide’s SkyCity casino on May 26.

Ma, who has a significant investors visa to live in Australia, alleges SkyCity took his gambling chips, worth $6.3m, out of a locked safe and paid their value to Xie, who is allegedly banned from every casino in Australia and to have “substantial gambling debts”, court documents state.

Adelaide’s SkyCity casino. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Xie, who was allegedly the target of an unsuccessful murder attempt two year ago, was acting as an “intermediary” using the junket licence belonging to Chinese-resident junket operator Zhuangqian Fang, court documents state.

Ma, who was a frequent casino gambler, told the court he visited SkyCity to gamble in May as part of Fang’s junket, he was accompanied by an employee of Xie. He mostly plays baccarat, the court heard.

He alleges the $6.3m worth of chips were transferred to Xie or Fang in late May when he returned to Hong Kong for his son’s graduation.

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He had planned to return to Adelaide and collect them from the safe in early June because he had earlier been unable to collect them, after a dispute arose when he tried to cash out his chips at the casino’s payment cage.

Details of the case were revealed after Ma’s lawyers applied to freeze Xie’s assets to the value of $6.3m including two Sydney homes, one in Hunters Hill and the other in Galston, and force SkyCity to reveal details of the bank account where Ma’s winnings were transferred, as well as Xie and Fang’s residential addresses.

Linong Ma claims his $6.3 million in casino winnings were stolen by a “banned gambler” with “substantial debts”.

Ma’s barrister Sam Di Carlo, told the court in written submissions filed last month that his client intended to sue Xie for stealing the money, and SkyCity for trespass for breaking into the safe and taking Ma’s chips, and misrepresentation for assuring him the safe was secure as Ma had the only key.

Mr Di Carlo told the court in written submissions that SkyCity “falsely indicated to Mr Ma that no one else could access his safe and that his money would be safe there” and paid the winnings out to the junket operator despite “knowing there was a dispute” and had been told that Mr Fang, Mr Xie and their representatives were attempting to steal the money.

Xie’s ex-girlfriend and former employee, Shingyee “Josephine” Goh, 24, a Malaysian national on a student visa from Haymarket in Sydney, told the court in a sworn statement that she had been with Ma on the night he had his lucky streak, as it was her job sit beside men as they gamble and collect their chips.

Goh told the court in her statement that Xie told her he intended to steal the chips and pressured her to lie to Ma about gambling and losing $4 million herself or to steal $1 million and go into hiding.

Skycity Adelaide Casino general manager David Christian.

Goh refused both options and told Ma what had happened, telling him Xie told her he could not afford to pay Ma his winnings.

Goh stated in her affidavit that she was afraid her safety because Xie allegedly told her he was going to send two men to “take her somewhere” the next day.

Ma told the court that Goh told him that “Xie gambles a lot and he has substantial amounts of debts”.

Goh told the court that Xie told her “he was banned from the gambling industry in Australia” and that he “was almost killed” in June 2017 when somebody tried “to kill him with a knife”.

SkyCity’s lawyer told Ma’s lawyer that its casino staff were aware Ma had a dispute about his winnings “however this is a matter between Mr Ma and the junket operator”.

Junket operators get paid a fee for bringing rich “whales” to casinos as part of a group, but the casino deals directly with the junket operator and not with the individual gamblers, SkyCity states in documents filed in court.

A draft order requiring the filing of a claim by Ma’s lawyers and SkyCity to reveal Xie and Fang’s addresses is on the court file, however Justice Helen Bowskill has not made the final order.

No future date for the hearing has been set.

Neither Ma nor SkyCity’s lawyers responded to requests for comment.