{"id":48259,"date":"2026-04-29T08:18:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T00:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=48259"},"modified":"2026-04-29T08:18:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T00:18:36","slug":"court-dismisses-singapore-casino-bankruptcy-petition-over-rm26mil-gambling-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=48259","title":{"rendered":"Court dismisses Singapore casino bankruptcy petition over RM26mil gambling debt"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"CASINO\"<\/div>
Restaurant owner Lee Fook Kheun argued that recovering gambling debts disguised as credit facilities was unenforceable under Malaysian law. (File pic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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PETALING JAYA<\/span>:<\/address>\n

The High Court in Ipoh has dismissed a Singapore casino\u2019s petition to bankrupt a restaurant owner for his alleged failure to settle a RM26 million debt, ruling that the claim is not legally enforceable.<\/p><\/div>\n

Justice Moses Susayan said Singapore-based Resorts World at Sentosa Pte Ltd could not recover the debt owed by Lee Fook Kheun because it arose from a gambling transaction, which was void and illegal under Malaysian law.<\/p>\n

Susayan also said he was bound by a Federal Court ruling early last year that a gambling debt was not legally enforceable in Malaysia on grounds of public policy.<\/p>\n

The petition was based on a 2018 Singapore High Court order which was registered in Malaysia under the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Act 1958.<\/p>\n

The judgment sum, including interest as of Dec 22, 2022, amounted to RM25,937,294.58.<\/p>\n

Resorts World filed the creditor\u2019s petition in 2021 at the Ipoh High Court because Lee resides in Ipoh.<\/p>\n

Lee challenged the petition, arguing that recovering gambling debts disguised as credit facilities was unenforceable under Malaysian law.<\/p>\n

He also contended that the alleged judgment debt was void and could not constitute a valid debt for bankruptcy proceedings.<\/p>\n

In his judgment delivered yesterday, Susayan stressed that a gambling debt was a \u201cdebt of honour\u201d which was not legally enforceable.<\/p>\n

He added that foreign judgments must yield to Malaysian public policy and statutory prohibitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis court is not a rubber stamp to enforce a foreign judgment which is contrary to Malaysian public policy,\u201d he said in his oral grounds.<\/p>\n

Susayan also referred to Section 26 of the Civil Law Act 1956 and Sections 24 and 31 of the Contracts Act 1950, which render gambling debts null, void and illegal.<\/p>\n

However, the judge did not award costs against the Singapore casino.<\/p>\n

Lawyers Chan Kok Keong and Leong Cheok Keng represented Lee, while Natasha Yau acted for the casino.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Restaurant owner Lee Fook Kheun argued that recovering gambling debts disguised as credit facilities was unenforceable under Malaysian law. (File pic) PETALING JAYA: The High…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}