Poker pro Phil Ivey is not ready to surrender to Atlantic City’s Borgata in a prolonged legal battle over the amount of $9.6 million the player had won playing baccarat at the gambling venue. Ivey’s legal team has contested the casino’s claim that he should repay his winnings based on an “identical” court case from 2015.
Last year, players at the Golden Nugget, another Atlantic City-based casino, were ordered to return the amount of $1.5 million they had previously won playing mini-baccarat at the gambling venue.
Back in 2012, a group of patrons noticed that a new deck of Gemaco cards had not been pre-shuffled due to an error made by the manufacturer. And under the New Jersey Casino Control Act, cards must also be pre-shuffled by the dealer immediately before play begins.
The players in question realized that the cards were dealt in a certain pattern that repeated every fifteen hands. As a result they won 41 hands in a row, accumulating winnings of $1.5 million.
To make sure that decks are completely different from one another, Gemaco pre-shuffles them with special machines. The deck used during the above-mentioned players’ mini-baccarat session were pre-shuffled neither by the manufacturer, nor, as found out by the court, by the dealer. It was ruled that the Golden Nugget patrons violated state law and had to repay their winnings.
Phil Ivey’s legal team argued that the two cases had nothing in common as it had been ruled that the poker pro and his companion player Cheng Yin Sun had violated their contract with the casino but had not committed fraud, in general.
Back in 2012, the two players used the controversial edge sorting technique to improve their edge against the Borgata. Ivey and Sun explored discrepancies on the backs of purple Gemaco decks. As a result, they won $9.6 million over four baccarat sessions. They were paid out their winnings to find some time later that they have been sued by the Atlantic City casino.
Ivey and Sun’s legal team pointed out that although the players improved their odds, they still gambled. Sun has recently testified that they were well-aware of the fact that they could not be “accurate all the time.” She has further noted that they lost around $2.7 million during one of their visits to the casino, despite their advantage.
Last month, the Borgata said that it would seek $15.5 million from Ivey and Sun, including the actual winnings, accumulated interest, comps offered to them during their visits, and “expectation damages” of $5.4 million.
