In Venetian Macau Ltd v Hu Yangning [2026] SGHC 180, the General Division of the High Court of Singapore (High Court) held that a foreign judgment founded on a gambling debt cannot be registered and enforced in Singapore under the Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act 1959 (REFJA). To allow enforcement would be contrary to Singapore’s public policy against enforcing gambling debts in courts, as embodied in section 5(2) of the Civil Law Act 1909.
The High Court also held that section 5(1)(a)(iii) of the REFJA requires that actual notice of the foreign proceedings be received by the judgment debtor in sufficient time to enable the judgment debtor to defend the foreign proceedings, notwithstanding that process may have been duly served in accordance with the law of the country of the original court. If actual notice was not received in sufficient time, and the defendant did not appear, the registration of the foreign judgment would be set aside.
To view our update on the decision, please click here.
If you would like information and/or assistance on the above or any other area of law, you may wish to contact the Partner at WongPartnership whom you normally work with or the following Partner:
Daryl WONG
Partner – Banking & Financial Disputes
d +65 6416 8697
e daryl.wong@wongpartnership.com
Click here to view Daryl’s CV.