A blackjack player has sued Colorado’s Ameristar Casino and the city of Black Hawk after he was allegedly detained by the casino for counting cards. He is seeking a total of $3 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
The lawsuit stems from an October 19, 2021 incident in which plaintiff Joseph Shiraef was engaged in a winning blackjack session at Ameristar, and casino officials determined he was counting cards to gain an advantage. Shiraef alleges in the lawsuit that he was physically blocked from leaving the casino for what the operator claimed was “criminal violation of the Colorado fraud statute by counting cards.”
A wealth of legal precedent has established that casinos are within their rights to refuse to deal blackjack to those suspected of gaining an advantage by keeping a mental tally of the cards that have been dealt, which changes the game from around a 2 percent house advantage to a player advantage of 2.5 percent or more. However, refusing to deal blackjack to a player is different from detaining a player for an alleged crime—card-counting is not illegal.
Shiraef is suing Ameristar Casino, its owner Gaming and Leisure Properties, the city of Black Hawk, one of its police officers and a Colorado Division of Gaming agent for his detention.
The lawsuit charges he was detained with “no probable cause,” and his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government were violated. In his complaint, he blames the city of Black Hawk for “not training police officers,” and both the casino and its owner for acts of false imprisonment, negligent training and “refusing to cash in his chips.”
According to the lawsuit, Shiraef was down $4,000 when a casino manager asked to see his ID, after he had shown identification several times. The manager informed him that he would not be permitted to cash out his chips, $1,800 worth, unless he handed over his ID. He refused, and subsequently, when attempting to leave the property, “a Colorado Gaming Commission agent wearing a badge and a label on his jacket that says ‘police’ stepped out of the black SUV and approached Shiraef’s car window,” identifying himself as Joseph Nguyen, the lawsuit reports.
After Shiraef showed his ID to Nguyen, he was asked to hand it over, the complaint alleges. Shiraef then allegedly requested the presence of local law enforcement, as it “would be a relief if he could talk to an actual police officer at this point.”
Shiraef called 911 himself as “he was being detained against his will by the Gaming Commission agent when he had not done anything wrong or illegal,” according to the lawsuit.
Shiraef is seeking $1.5 million in economic and compensatory damages, and $1.5 million in punitive damages, along with costs and attorneys’ fees.
