The man, surnamed Yuan, alleged that the Venetian dug a one-metre square hole on the wall of the presidential suite he was staying in April last year and covered it with a black cloth, said Apple Daily.

The casino also put two white towels in front of Mr Yuan's suite and turned on two large fans facing his room without notifying him, it said.

Mr Yuan claimed that his luck turned bad after discovering the arrangements and that he went from winning US$400,000 to losing US$2 million, the report said.

'We Chinese drape black and white cloths only when there is a death in the family. It is such a taboo for regular people, let alone for the gamblers,' he was quoted as saying.

Mr Yuan filed a complaint against the Venetian after returning to Taiwan and demanded the cancellation of a US$2 million debt to the casino, half of it on credit, it said.

The casino has promised to refund him US$100,000 in cash and the same amount in chips, the paper said, without explaining why it had agreed to this.

Mr Yuan had notified the Venetian through his lawyer of his intention to sue for feng shui sabotage if the casino fails to come up with a 'reasonable solution', it said.

Feng shui, or wind and water, is an ancient Chinese belief that seeks to channel good and bad psychic energy through the arrangement of furniture and ornaments.

There are some common feng shui taboos among Taiwanese gamblers, such as bringing a hair brush to a gambling table as 'brush' is a homophone of 'lose', the report said. -- AFP