Judge slams heiress gambler

Nora Al-Daher spent £2million gambling at The Ritz.

A millionaire who spent £2 million at the Ritz’s casino and then sued them has been slammed by the High Court judge.

As Two Little Fleas reported in July, Nora Al-Daher spent the money in a matter of hours at the exclusive casino club in London’s hotel.

According to the High Court judge, this “staggering” loss could be easily afforded by Mrs Al-Daher.

Despite this, the 50 year old, who is married to a wealthy Omani politician placed the blame for her loss with the casino, arguing that staff should have stopped her from betting.

She spent the money playing punto banco, which is a card game similar to baccarat.

Following her loss, she then tried to sue the casino for not stopping her.

The Judge at the High Court, Anthony Seys-Llewellyn, said that she had given no sign that her gambling was out of control, arguing that the there is no medical or psychiatric evidence that she was a gambling addict.

Mrs Al-Daher had previously described The Ritz as “my exclusive favourite club”.

On the evening when she lost £2 million, Mrs Al-Daher appeared in high spirits, tipping out £14,000 to the dealer, and other staff.

The Judge said that her account of events was “inconsistent and unreliable”, and that she extended her gambling limit herself from £1.7 million to £2 million at her own request.

She was asked by staff if she was “comfortable to go on” and replied that she was.

“Mrs Al-Daher is a person of wealth unimaginable to the ordinary person and, I suspect, to many of moderate or substantial wealth,” Judge Seys-Llewellyn said.

“It is demonstrable that… the enormous sums she gambled, and the enormous losses she sustained, were within her means”.

Mrs Al-Daher argued in court that, workers at the casino were fully aware that she had a gambling issue and that they continued to encourage her to play, extending her cheque cashing facility as she continued losing money.

She told the High Court: “I needed someone that night to tell me to stop playing and bring me to my senses.

“If I had been told to stop, of course I would have done so ­immediately. But no one ever told me to stop or to think about my gambling.”

The court also heard that Mrs Al-Daher, who lives in Muscat, Oman, had already suffered “significant” losses at other casinos that evening before she arrived at The Ritz.

The judge said that Mrs Al-Daher’s wealth came from her late father in Saudi Arabia, and her Omani’s husband’s global business interests.

After her night of such “staggering” losses, the judge said the cheques that she wrote to the casino – each of them for up to £300,000 – were dishonoured.

She had paid only £1 million, and now the judge has ordered her to pay the other million, in addition to interest.

Mrs Al-Daher told the court that she first realised that she was a gambling addict in 1999 and that between then and April 2012, The Ritz alone had received more than £20million in buy-ins from her, of which she lost more than £7 million.

The judge, however, dismissed this claim saying there was no medical or psychiatric evidence of her being a gambling addict.

The case reached the High Court after The Ritz sued Mrs Al-Daher – the wife of super-rich Omani Foreign Minister, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Al-Busaidi – for £1 million, when they discovered the cheques she had written were not honoured.

Ritz boss, Roger Maris, told the court: “She was a very good customer and there had been a very good history of paying.

“There was no thought in our mind that the cheques were not going to get paid.”