Betfair Official Blog

Honouring Your Debts At Poker

YOU always settle your debts and collect your winnings.

You play online - there is no escaping payment, no IOUs and no rubberised cheques.

But life in the casino is different.

At the Claremont Club in London's Berkeley Square, two cheques for a combined value of almost £7million are on show.

Ahmed Al-Reyaysa's signature is on them. But the cheques are bouncier than Lucy Pinder on a trampoline. And yesterday, the Claremont went to the High Court to try to get its cash.

And what of Mr Al-Reyaysa? If you wrote a cheque for £3million, you would be laughed at. But he did it. And he got away with it. Know that in one 18-month period Mr Al-Reyaysa spent £150million. And that just at the Claremont.

So when Mr Al-Reyaysa gave the Claremont a cheque for £3.07million from the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the casino cashier handed over the gambling chips. The cashier may ever have smiled.

Al-Reyaysa played. Al-Reyaysa lost.

Assured by the National Bank of Abu Dhabi that the his cheque would be honoured, the Claremont did not report Al-Reyaysa to Gamblers Anonymous or have a quiet word with him but cashed his cheque for £2.7million.

He lost.

It turns out that Al-Reyaysa is also being sued by London's Ritz Casino having given them bad cheques worth £2.25million.

The casinos want their money. And rightly so. A promise is a promise. But you can't win all the time. Even casinos have to learn that.

The Poker Anorak wants to know if you've ever not been paid in a game of poker, or not paid up? And if someone didn't settle there debts what did you do about it?

Play online - all debts are honoured

• Poker
• Poker Anorak