Professional card player Phil Ivey received another blow in court several weeks after a US federal judge ruled against him in a $9.6-million legal battle with Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino. Ivey lost earlier today an appeal against a London High Court ruling that dismissed his case against gambling operator Genting Casinos UK and its Crockfords Casino in Mayfair, London for improperly withholding £7.8 million in baccarat winnings.
Ivey won the aforementioned amount back in 2012 for playing baccarat at the said gambling venue with companion player Cheng Yin Sun. The two of them played a version of the game known as punto banco. They used a highly controversial playing technique known as edge sorting to gain advantage over the casino. The two players did not touch the cards at any point but asked dealers to turn them in a manner that would make it easier for them to explore manufacturing defects on their backs and thus improve their odds against the house.
After the end of their playing sessions, Ivey and Sun were informed by the casino that they would be wired their winnings in due time. However, all Ivey received was the £1-million stake he had paid in order to play at the gambling venue. Crockfords Casino eventually decided to withhold his winnings due to the use of the edge sorting technique. Arguing that he had done nothing wrong, Ivey brought the matter to court in May 2013, thus putting the beginning of what was the most expensive legal battle to have taken place in the UK casino history at that time.
A year later, the High Court in London ruled against the player, denying him his winnings. Ivey was given the right to appeal the decision and he and his lawyers did so later in 2014.
The appeal case commenced in April 2016 but it was not until today that a decision was made. Under the 2014 High Court ruling, Ivey and his companion player’s playing behavior “amounted to cheating” and the Court of Appeal today concluded the same. According to the three appeal judges and the trial judge that were charged with the case, the two players had not been dishonest but yet, the utilization of the edge sorting technique could be interpreted as cheating and as violation of the UK Gambling Act 2005.
Commenting on the latest turn of events, Ivey told media that he did not find sense in the decision as one cannot have “honest cheating.”
As it could be expected, Genting Casinos was quite happy and pleased with the Court of Appeal’s ruling that the player should not be paid out his winnings.
Late in October, Ivey lost a similar court case against the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City. In 2012, he and Sun won almost $10 million by playing baccarat at the gambling venue in question. They utilized the edge sorting technique to improve their odds against the casino. Unlike Crockfords Casino, the Borgata paid out their winnings before realizing that the said technique had been used. The casino filed a lawsuit against Ivey and his companion player in a bid to recover at least part of the above-mentioned amount.
