{"id":154880,"date":"2020-11-10T07:34:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T15:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=154880"},"modified":"2020-11-11T04:00:48","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T12:00:48","slug":"park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a327 Million Gambler Sues London\u2019s Park Lane Club for \u00a3244K in Unpaid VIP Incentives"},"content":{"rendered":"

A high-rolling gambler who staked \u00a327 million ($35 million) on the roulette tables of an exclusive London private members casino before turning a \u201csmall\u201d profit is suing the casino for cashback.<\/p>\n

\"Park
London\u2019s high-end Park Lane Club lost its license last week, largely because of question marks around its ownership. (Image: SBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a lawsuit filed in London\u2019s High Court, Croatian Juste Puharic claims he was promised a 0.9 percent VIP incentive bonus by the Park Lane Club<\/a> in the city\u2019s swanky Mayfair<\/a> district.<\/p>\n

After playing for five days at the club in May 2015, Puharic quit \u00a31.5 million ($2 million) to the good. But the \u00a3243,518 ($323k) he alleges he was promised \u2013 a 0.9 percent commission on stakes of \u00a327,057,621 \u2013 did not materialize.<\/p>\n

In his lawsuit, Puharic claims he would not have risked such a large sum had he not expected to receive the cashback percentage. He says he is \u201ccontractually entitled\u201d to the cash.<\/p>\n

But the casino denies it formally offered the incentive to Puharic, and says it was \u201cnot particularly interested\u201d in whether he played there or not.<\/p>\n

Who Really Owns the Park Lane Club? \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The lawsuit caps a bad few days for the Park Lane Club and its owner, Silverbond Enterprises Ltd., which last Wednesday had its gaming license revoked by the UK Gambling Commission.<\/p>\n

The regulator said it revoked the license because of a \u201cchange of corporate control.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s believed Silverbond is — or was — owned by Vasilijis Melniks, who has been accused of embezzling and laundering \u20ac54 million ($64 million USD) from a Ukrainian state-owned energy company.<\/p>\n

\n

According to public records, Latvian national Melniks resigned as a director of Silverbond in October 2018. That came soon after a Ukrainian Court froze the businessman\u2019s assets in the country, which triggered a review of the company\u2019s casino license by the UKGC.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

His replacement on the Silverbond board was Italian banker Ricardo Tattoni. But the UKGC in its ruling suggested there was still a question mark over the ownership of the casino.<\/p>\n

The regulator said it could not be satisfied as to the \u201csource of funds used to acquire and support the license at the time of the change of corporate control, or to whom future profits of the licensee would be paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, the UKGC fined the Park Lane Club \u00a31.8 million ($2.4 million) for anti-money laundering (AML) failures .<\/p>\n

Mystery Men<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If Melniks is something of an international man of mystery, so is the casino\u2019s current antagonist, Puharic.<\/p>\n

News articles in his native Latvia have described him as a \u201cfamous gambler\u201d who earned \u201cvery serious money\u201d playing roulette before investing it in business and real estate.<\/p>\n

He is currently embroiled in a separate legal spat over the ownership of \u00a35 million-worth ($6.6 million) of classic Rolls Royces and Mercedes Benzes.<\/p>\n

Puharic says they are his and claims he was paying \u00a35,000 ($6.6k) per month to keep them in the parking lot of the Grosvenor House Hotel, also in Park Lane, Mayfair, before they were unaccountably spirited away by hotel staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A high-rolling gambler who staked \u00a327 million ($35 million) on the roulette tables of an exclusive London private members casino before turning a \u201csmall\u201d profit is suing the casino for cashback. In a lawsuit filed in London\u2019s High Court, Croatian Juste Puharic claims he was promised a 0.9 percent VIP incentive bonus by the Park […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":154882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPark Lane Club London Sued by Gambler for \u00a3244K in Unpaid Cashback<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Park Lane Club in Mayfair, London, sued by Croatian gambler Juste Puharic, who claims $344,000 in VIP cashback is owed to him.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Park Lane Club London Sued by Gambler for \u00a3244K in Unpaid Cashback\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Park Lane Club in Mayfair, London, sued by Croatian gambler Juste Puharic, who claims $344,000 in VIP cashback is owed to him.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-10T15:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-11T12:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/PL1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"553\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/\",\"name\":\"Park Lane Club London Sued by Gambler for \u00a3244K in Unpaid Cashback\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/PL1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-10T15:34:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-11T12:00:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Park Lane Club in Mayfair, London, sued by Croatian gambler Juste Puharic, who claims $344,000 in VIP cashback is owed to him.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/park-lane-club-london-by-gamblwe-for-244k-in-unpaid-cashback\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/PL1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/PL1.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":553,\"caption\":\"London\u2019s high-end Park Lane Club lost its license last week, largely because of question marks around its ownership. 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