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SCMP Reporter

AN open verdict was returned yesterday on the death of a gambler who was run over by a train after a platform scuffle with a debt collector.

  Wong Tim-ki, 54, was being accompanied back from Macau by a casino worker trying to recover a $100,000 loan on October 21 last year.

  Choi Sao, 31, who told the coroner he worked as a ''chip exchanger'', said that Wong pushed him on to the rails at Kowloon Bay MTR station and then dived underneath a train after being told he could not have a few days' grace to repay his debt.

  Wong died of multiple injuries. Mr Choi broke both legs.

     Wong had borrowed the money on October 20 and lost it on the baccarat table in 10 minutes, Mr Choi said.

  He and two other men from another syndicate owed money by Wong had been accompanying the debtor back after a night's gambling at the Kam Wick casino.

  Mr Choi told the court he worked for a chip-lending syndicate which operated within the casino, for which Stanley Ho held the licence.

  On October 21 last year, the four took the train from Sheung Wan. At Kowloon Bay, Wong told them to get out and asked Mr Choi for time to pay.

   On the platform, Wong put his arm on Mr Choi's shoulder and give him a hard push, the inquest heard.

  Train driver Lau Shu-pui, 32, said he saw two men ''hugging'' as they fell on to the track. He pressed the emergency stop button.

   Cleaner Che Shui-lan, 63, who had been waiting on the platform, said she had seen two men on the platform holding each other's necks.

  Debtors who did not pay back a loan immediately could be charged interest of between $2,000 and $10,000 a day.

  That worked out at between 730 and 3,650 per cent a year which Coroner Warner Banks pointed out was illegal in Hongkong.

  Mr Choi said he would lend money in the form of chips only to regular gamblers and then would accompany them home to check they had given the right address and to take what money they had.

  Those running a syndicate would receive $450 per loan of $100,000, of which Choi would receive $40 or $50.

  Wong, according to Mr Choi, gambled regularly at the Kam Wick.

  Before borrowing from Mr Choi, Wong had borrowed from others operating as chip lenders and had been losing heavily at baccarat, placing stakes of $10,000 or $20,000 a time.

  An employee of Vitasoy, where Wong had worked as a senior sales manager, said he understood Wong had been dismissed last June and had withdrawn about $1 million from the company fund.



Open verdict on death of gambler