The Malaysian based Genting Group is a conglomerate that has a strong presence in the global casino market.
The casino operator has two casinos in America with its Resorts World Casino New York City in Queens county and the Hilton Miami in Florida.
The two U.S based casinos were forced to shut down during the COVID-19 lockdown and suffered significant losses like most land based casinos in America and around the world.
Genting had an insurance policy that covered losses that cropped up due to such incidents and filed their insurance claims only to be told that they would not be honoured.
Patients from different parts of the world can attest to the fact that insurance companies often hedge out on paying by giving out a number of reasons. Most patients who are denied insurance coverage feel wronged but end up doing nothing as they don’t have the money and the legal resources to pursue these big insurance companies.
The Genting Group has no such problems as they company has cried foul over not being paid their insured amount which they estimated to be over $500 million. The Genting Group has reportedly filed a lawsuit against 12 insurers who have hedged on their promise of paying out their insurance contract with the Hilton Miami in Florida and Resorts World Casino New York City.
Insurers Shirked Their Responsibilities
One of those insurers is a subsidiary of the American International Group. Genting Americas Inc. claimed that their insurers decided to shirk their responsibilities when it came to paying out the insurance policies held by the two U.S casinos as they decided to put their financial interests above the interest of their policy holders.
Genting Americas claim that it closed its two casinos based on the instruction from New York and Florida and their respective gaming regulators. The losses incurred by these two casino properties should therefore be considered losses that were due to destruction, damage and loss to physical property.
The insurers don’t agree with Genting Americas as this clause is generally put in place to cover physical damage that a hurricane or flood might cause. However, Genting disagrees with this and says it does not have to show physical damage at any of its casinos for this clause to trigger.
We will have to wait and see how the lawsuit plays out as a win for Genting could trigger other casino operators to file similar lawsuits against their insurers.
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