Borgata Casino Sues Phil Ivey for a $10 Million Baccarat Scam
Yet another court case seems on the horizon for poker pro Phil Ivey as he’s being sued by the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City over yet another baccarat playing scam. The situation appears to be similar to that which occurred at Crockford’s Casino in London when Ivey, over a period of just a few days wons millions of dollars, and then the casino refused to pay up and accused Ivey of cheating. In the Borgata case, Ivey is again being accused of ‘edge sorting’ whilst playing baccarat and taking advantage of cards that had design defects, effectively giving Ivey a huge advantage.
Ivey used his high roller status at the casino to request a dealer who spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese, an automatic shuffler, and that the cards to be used were purple Gemaco playing cards, and the lawsuit states that, “Ivey’s true motive, intention, and purpose in negotiating these playing arrangements was to create a situation in which he could surreptitiously manipulate what he knew to be a defect in the playing cards in order to gain an unfair advantage over Borgata.” The card manufacturer and an unknown woman are also listed as co-defendants as the Borgata states the the cards were not inspected correctly before being sent to the casino, and that the casino was not warned against any possible defects.
Four Trips and Big Wins
The casino argues that during four separate trips during 2012, Ivey placed average bets ranging between $25,000 and $93,800 and the Borgata also state that Ivey had played on October 7th the day that the news of the Crockford’s case broke and at one stage was up around $3.5 million. The Borgata then argue that he lost large amounts on purpose and eventually left $824,000 up.
Regarding the Crockford’s case, Ivey has admitted to ‘edge sorting’ but has however denied doing anything wrong, however, and it does seem highly likely that the same thing has occurred here, however Ivey has yet to comment on the case.
