Gambler Threatens to Sue the Venetian for Bad Feng Shui

LTB logo
The Venetian casino in Las Vegas is reportedly being threatened with a lawsuit by a Taiwanese man, identified only as "Yuan" (which should really narrow it down), who blames "feng shui sabotage" for a two-million-dollar losing streak last year.  According to the report, Yuan contacted the Venetian through his attorney after he returned to Taiwan, and said that he intended to sue if the casino did not come up with a "reasonable solution" to the matter.

What we need a reasonable solution to, apparently, is the problem of foreign gamblers being able to get out of the country after running up millions of dollars in debt.  How did that happen?  We need that money.  I think we should tell the TSA to turn all their checkpoints around and make sure everybody leaving the country is carefully screened for gambling contraband.  We can't afford to let even one of these people get through.

Feng shui Rather than being thankful that he got out of Nevada with a debt this size in the first place, Yuan has demanded that the casino cancel it, saying that it used feng shui to cause his losing streak.  Feng shui is described as "an ancient Chinese belief that seeks to channel good and bad psychic energy through the arrangement of furniture and ornaments," or alternatively as "an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven (astronomy) and Earth (geography) to help one improve life by receiving positive qi."  Unfortunately, evil casino owners have now somehow gained this ancient knowledge and are using it to disturb innocent gamblers.

Yuan claims that the Venetian "dug a one-meter-square hole" into the wall of his suite (the presidential suite) and covered it with a black cloth.  This is apparently bad feng shui, in addition to being weird, but the Venetian wasn't done.  Next, it put two white towels in front of Yuan's suite, and "turned on two large fans facing his room without notifying him."  After learning of these ominous portents, Yuan claims, his luck changed and he went from being up $400,000 to losing two million.

Again, I would say that if he managed to get out of Nevada alive with an unpaid two-million-dollar gambling debt, his luck was holding up pretty well.