Borgata Casino Lawsuit Alleges Gambler Cheated, Won $9.6M

An Atlantic City casino is suing a big-time gambler, claiming he won $9.6 million in a card-cheating scheme in baccarat.


The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Phillip Ivey Jr., considered one of the best poker players in the world.





The lawsuit alleges Ivey and an associate exploited a defect in cards made by a Kansas City manufacturer that enabled them to sort and arrange good cards in baccarat.


The technique gave him an unfair advantage on four occasions between April and October 2012, the casino asserted in its lawsuit.
The casino claims the technique, called edge sorting, violates New Jersey casino gambling regulations. Its senior vice president, Joe Lupo, declined to comment on the lawsuit.


Ivey's lawyer declined to comment on Friday. The lawsuit claims the cards, manufactured by Gemaco Inc., were defective in that the pattern on the back of them was not uniform.


The cards have rows of small white circles designed to look like the tops of cut diamonds, but the Borgata claims some of them were only a half diamond or a quarter of one.


The company is also fighting a lawsuit from another Atlantic City casino, the Golden Nugget, claiming the firm provided unshuffled cards that led to gamblers beating the casino for $1.5 million.


Gemaco did not respond to a request for comment. The lawsuit claims that Ivey and his companion instructed a dealer to flip cards in particular ways, depending on whether it was a desirable card in baccarat.





The numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9 are considered good cards. Bad cards would be flipped in different directions, so that after several hands of cards, the good ones were arranged in a certain manner — with the irregular side of the card facing in a specific direction — that Ivey could spot when they came out of the dealer chute.


The lawsuit claims Ivey wanted the cards shuffled by an automatic shuffling machine, which would not alter the way each card was aligned. A lawsuit filed in Britain's High Court by the Malaysia-based Genting Group, a major casino operator, makes a similar claim against Ivey.


It alleges Ivey and an accomplice amassed almost $12 million by cheating at baccarat. In that case, Ivey has denied any misconduct.
Ivey has won nine World Series of Poker bracelets. He compares himself on his website to Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali.
[h=5]—The Associated Press[/h]

Betallsports said:

The company is also fighting a lawsuit from another Atlantic City casino, the Golden Nugget, claiming the firm provided unshuffled cards that led to gamblers beating the casino for $1.5 million.

Click to expand...

so the manufacture is suppose to shuffle the cards?

Ivey is an icon

The casinos are using their cards, dealers and equipment to play these games.... Ivey in no way touched the cards, put in his own dealer, or used his shuffling machines.

Is it Ivey's fault that he found a flaw in the casino? The casino is at fault here for not doing some sort of preventive measures to make sure things like this don't happen.

Casinos use every advantage they can against the players (alcohol, changing decks, changing dealers, setting limits, ect) to make sure the casino has an advantage... but when a player finds an advantage all of a sudden they scream "RAPE!!!"

Fuck em, if they can't take a joke!!

the laws and rules are supposed to be set up and enforced
to protect both the house and the player. since casinos
require a large initial investment, generate nice cash flows
for local + state governments, are huge employers, and
tend to be very experienced at lobbying; what tends to
happen is that fairness tends to get skewed in the casinos
best interests. gray areas tend to get interpretated in the
casinos favour by legislatures, gambling commissions,
or the courts. these precedents are used to the house's
advantage in present and future issues. in atlantic city a few
years ago, they had a scenrio where a baccarat (??-could be another
game) was using some decks that were unshuffled or at least
predictable for a period of time. amazingly, the players figured
this out BEFORE the house. the players won a lot of money. the
casino had them arrested for cheating and wanted the money returned.
although ivey didn't cheat, he did exploit and maximize a flaw in the
house's methods. based upon the previous case, one can see why
they would accuse him of cheating. to avoid false accusations, all
one has to do is lose. to come under heightened scrutiny, just win.

Ivey is the face of the poker world, it's really disappointing if this is true

Defying said:

Ivey is the face of the poker world, it's really disappointing if this is true

Click to expand...

What did he do? I don't see him being wrong here.

Defying said:

Ivey is the face of the poker world, it's really disappointing if this is true

Click to expand...

Your kidding right?

So it took them this long (since 2012) to come up with something to try & get their money back....sad that casinos can't accept losing these days & always come up with an excuse...

NFLTrends said:

The casinos are using their cards, dealers and equipment to play these games.... Ivey in no way touched the cards, put in his own dealer, or used his shuffling machines.

Is it Ivey's fault that he found a flaw in the casino? The casino is at fault here for not doing some sort of preventive measures to make sure things like this don't happen.

Casinos use every advantage they can against the players (alcohol, changing decks, changing dealers, setting limits, ect) to make sure the casino has an advantage... but when a player finds an advantage all of a sudden they scream "RAPE!!!"

Click to expand...

Hache Man said:

So it took them this long (since 2012) to come up with something to try & get their money back....sad that casinos can't accept losing these days & always come up with an excuse...

Click to expand...

Complete bullshit. The casino put the cards in play. They control the games. All we get to do is play them. Casino lost their ass..... tough shit...... case closed....... move on.

BUT.... "Ivey compares himself on his website to Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali." In this case he has lost his mind. You just sit on your ass and play cards, young man. How damn dumb are you? On second thought..... if he has banged enough hookers, he has earned a comparison to Tiger!

Ok, I am probably missing something but why wouldn't they instead sue Gemaco the company that supplied the cards? They sold them a defective product. And fire people in their own company who ordered the cards and never figured it out. I am going to Vegas in a couple of weeks and ask a few pit bosses what they think. I bet they all will put blame on the casino not the players.

dr. vegas said:

Ok, I am probably missing something but why wouldn't they instead sue Gemaco the company that supplied the cards? They sold them a defective product. And fire people in their own company who ordered the cards and never figured it out. I am going to Vegas in a couple of weeks and ask a few pit bosses what they think. I bet they all will put blame on the casino not the players.

Click to expand...

I agree.

Enfuego said:

What did he do? I don't see him being wrong here.

Click to expand...

Jstack34 said:

Your kidding right?

Click to expand...

What am I missing???

It's basically marked card right?? You're saying if this is all true, you have no problem with it????

I agree that the card manufacturer is at fault.... But If Ivey picked up on this, and was using it to his advantage, I find that unethical, unprofessional, and dishonorable.... When we have such a negative sterotype of gamblers anyways, if this is true, the face of poker, then just reinforces the sterotype.

This is downright comical.

When you bet like $3000 there are like 3 pit crew and others watching. When you win 9 million I am fairly sure there were plenty of high ups watching. If Phil is smarter than the casino, thats the casino's problem. You use every edge you can get that doesnt involve doing something illegal. No way remembering what cards look like can be illegal.