BAHA'IS OF AUSTRALIA

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Second Case:

BEHROUZ FOROUGHI
Mr Foroughi is 43 years old. He was born in Iran on 7 January 1964. He had limited education in Iran and India. He and his family belong to Bahai faith. He entered Australia on a refugee visa in 1988, having held some casual employment in Iran before his arrival in Australia.
 He commenced gambling in Adelaide in 1991 where he learned to play roulette. He moved to Sydney in about 1991-1992 where he commenced work as a house painter. 
 In 1995, Mr Foroughi commenced his own business, Bendix Painting & Decorating. Later, he carried on business through a company known as Design Decorating & Maintenance Pty Limited. In the same year, he started gambling at Star City’s temporary premises at Pyrmont. He continued gambling in 1997 at Star City’s permanent casino which opened in that year.
Mr Foroughi agreed under cross examination that he found gambling exciting and that he spent his winnings on dinner parties and sex with prostitutes.
On 17 May 2004, Mr Foroughi lost $12,000 at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. The following day, 18 May 2004, he lost approximately $15,000 at the Star City Casino in Sydney. The voluntary exclusion order was made on that day.
Within a few weeks of the making of the voluntary exclusion order, that is to say, by early June 2004, Mr Foroughi returned to the casino in breach of the order. His sworn evidence as set out in his affidavit was:
"Initially, I went back to the Casino to see whether the Exclusion Order would work and whether the Casino staff would stop me from going back into the premises. I was very scared that the Casino staff would catch me. But nobody noticed me and I was not caught so I returned a few more times. On these occasions I bet small amounts of money, just $1,000.00 or $2,000.00, on Roulette."
He went on to depose in the following paragraphs of his affidavit that he was "very surprised" that no one from the casino stopped him and he went back many times, gambling very large amounts of money.
A schedule annexed to the affidavit sets out 65 dates on which Mr Foroughi claims to have entered the casino between 11 June 2004 and 28 January 2006. According to the schedule, Mr Foroughi suffered losses on 63 of the 65 occasions, ranging from $1,000 to $73,000. The only winnings referred to in the schedule were $700 on 27 January 2006 and $200 on 28 January 2006.
The total amount of losses particularised in the schedule was $612,095. However, Mr Foroughi gave evidence of various other estimates of his losses which I will refer to later.
On 7 November 2005, Mr Foroughi filed an application and statement of claim in the Federal Court claiming damages and other relief against Star City. The statement of claim pleaded claims for misleading and deceptive conduct and the other causes of action referred to above, based upon Star City’s failure to detect Mr Foroughi and remove him from the casino on approximately 40 occasions commencing 11 June 2004.
 On 23 November 2005, Ms Virginia Baker, who holds the position of Responsible Gambling Manager for Star City, sent a memo to the Casino’s Security Managers and Surveillance Managers about Mr Foroughi’s claims. She requested that Mr Foroughi’s photograph be placed on a "persons of interest" board, also known as the "hot list", to assist staff to prevent him from entering the casino.
In spite of the hot list posting, Mr Foroughi’s unchallenged evidence is that he entered the casino on 16 December 2005 and gambled large amount of money on the roulette tables. Indeed, so large was his betting that he claims he was offered the facilities of "the high rollers’" room. He claims to have suffered losses totalling $100,000 on 16 December 2005 and 17 December 2005.
On 28 January 2006, Mr Sasko Bujaroski, a senior security officer of Star City, detected Mr Foroughi in the casino. Mr Bujaroski recognised Mr Foroughi as an excluded patron and took steps to have him removed from the premises. Mr Ador Palad, an inspector employed by the Casino Control Authority, spoke with Mr Foroughi and arranged for a security officer to escort him from the casino.
On 20 April 2006, Mr Bujaroski again detected Mr Foroughi in the casino in breach of the voluntary exclusion order. Mr Bujaroski then approached Mr Foroughi with Mr Winston Lau, a Casino Control Authority inspector, who arranged for Mr Foroughi to be escorted from the premises.
In his written application for a voluntary exclusion order, Mr Foroughi requested that Star City make the order and acknowledged that Star City would not consider revoking the order until it had stood for at least 12 months.
The application contained an acknowledgment by Mr Foroughi that the order did not place any obligation, duty or responsibility on anyone except himself. It contained the following express undertaking:
"I undertake that I will, during the period of voluntary exclusion:
- consider myself a self excluded person; and
- recognise that it is my responsibility and I undertake not to enter or gamble within the gaming areas at Star City, being the main gaming floor and the Ende vour Room; and
- seek and continue to seek the assistance and advice of a qualified and recognised problem gambling counsellor."
The application also contained an express release and indemnity in favour of Star City from and against all liabilities incurred by it by reason of Mr Foroughi’s breach of the voluntary exclusion order.
When the application was signed, Mr Foroughi was provided with a notice containing further information about the order and a list of organisations which offered counselling services for problem gamblers.
The voluntary exclusion order was expressed to have been made under s 79 of the Casino Control Act. It stated that Mr Foroughi was prohibited from entering or remaining on the premises of Star City while the order remained in force and that it so remained from 18 May 2004 until it was revoked by Star City.
The order also stated that s 85 of the Casino Control Act provides that it is lawful for the person in charge of the casino:
"using no more force than is reasonable in the circumstances to prevent you from entering or to remove you from the casino while this order is in force."

References:

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Foroughi v Star City Pty Limited
BEHROUZ FOROUGHI v STAR CITY PTY LIMITED
NSD 2137 OF 2005

JACOBSON J
27 SEPTEMBER 2007
SYDNEY
IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY
NSD 2137 of 2005
BETWEEN:
BEHROUZ FOROUGHI
Applicant
AND:
STAR CITY PTY LIMITED
Respondent


JUDGE:
JACOBSON J
DATE OF ORDER:
27 SEPTEMBER 2007
WHERE MADE:
SYDNEY



THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. The application be dismissed.
2. The applicant pay the costs of the application.
3. The cross-claim be dismissed.
Note: Settlement and entry of orders is dealt with in Order 36 of the Federal Court Rules.



REASONS FOR JUDGMENT


Introduction and overview

1 Mr Behrouz Foroughi is a problem gambler. According to expert evidence called on his behalf, he is also a pathological gambler, although this diagnosis is disputed by an expert called by the respondent, Star City Pty Limited.

2 On 17 May 2004 and 18 May 2004, Mr Foroughi suffered substantial losses while playing roulette at Melbourne’s Crown Casino and at Star City’s casino at Pyrmont. Following his losses on 18 May 2004, Mr Foroughi requested that Star City ban him from the casino. Provision is made in s 79(3) of the Casino Control Act 1992 (NSW) for a casino operator to give an order, known as a voluntary exclusion order, made on the person’s voluntary application, prohibiting the person from entering or remaining in a casino. Star City made such an order against Mr Foroughi on 18 May 2004.

3 Mr Foroughi’s voluntary exclusion order was made on a form of application signed by him and witnessed by an employee of Star City. He stated in the application that he recognised that it was his responsibility not to enter the gaming areas and he undertook not to do so. He also undertook to seek assistance and advice from a qualified counsellor in problem gaming. He sought no such assistance until he consulted a solicitor in connection with the commencement of these proceedings.

4 Notwithstanding his express undertakings, Mr Foroughi claims to have entered Star City’s casino on 65 occasions between June 2004 and January 2006 and to have suffered gambling losses on those occasions amounting to many hundreds of thousands of dollars. He now seeks to recover his claimed losses from Star City under various causes of action.

The hearing before Justice Peter Jacobson continues …


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