Wealthy Australian property developer Harry Kakavas recently lost another case in his long-lasting battle to recover $20.5 million from the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. This time around, The Court of Appeal ruled that the Crown did not take advantage of a condition Kakavas supposedly had. Instead, they said that he was in perfectly good mental health while incurring the losses, which we'll discuss next.

High Roller

Baccarat was Kakavas' game of choice, and he had a penchant for betting as much as $300,000 per hand. Unfortunately, this also led to some quick losses, including one where he dropped $2.3 million in half an hour. In all, it was calculated that the property developer wagered a total of $1.5 billion in a 15-month span.

Taking Advantage

After losing the aforementioned $20.5 million during the mid-2000s, Kakavas didn't take it well. In fact, he's spent the past several years arguing with courts that the Crown Casino took advantage of his "gambling addiction." Some of the methods through which Crown attempted to entice Kakavas included private jets, cashback on losses, and other VIP perks. 

Legal Negotiations

While Harry Kakavas may think that the Crown Casino lured him into their establishment with evil intentions in mind, the judge in this case - Justice Bongiorno - thought differently. In ruling on the case, he said, "When gambling at Crown he had negotiated the terms on which he gambled and had threatened to, and in fact, had withheld his custom from Crown when he did not get what he wanted. These are not the characteristics of someone unable to conserve his own interests."

Taking all of the evidence into account, Harry Kakavas will not only be paying back the rest of his gambling losses, but also additional court fees incurred by the Crown Casino.