Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa wants a judge to throw out a counter-suit by poker pro Phil Ivey in the casino’s battle with Ivey over edge sorting.
The casino has charged that Ivey exploited a visible flaw in cards used during a baccarat session that allowed him to arrange and sort cards so he could see which cards were coming next from a shoe. The casino says the technique—called edge sorting—violates New Jersey casino gambling regulations.
Ivey won $9.6 million at the table and says he simply observed the flaw in the cards and that the casino did not have to acquiesce to his requests to re-arrange the cards.
In a court filing in August, Ivey also charged that the casino sought to impact his play was “plying him with free alcohol served by only the most curvaceous and voluptuous females in the industry.”
“It distracts you from your playing,” Ivey said in a deposition. “I mean, anything they can do to give themselves an advantage. Everyone knows that alcohol impairs your judgment, and they offer that, and they have the pretty cocktail waitresses and they’re all very flirty. They’re talking to you, you know. I got quite a few numbers.”
In its response, the Borgata said Ivey’s counterclaims amount to “gimcrackery”, or cheap, showy, useless trifles, the AP reported.
“The facts of this case are undisputed that Mr. Ivey and Ms. Sun set out to deceive Borgata with their sophisticated scheme and they were successful in doing so,” the casino wrote in its filing as reported by the Associated Press.
“When the dust kicked up by defendants’ repeated attempts to vilify the casino industry settles, we will have come full circle to the beginning of this case,” the casino wrote. “This issue is, and has always been a simple one: is edge sorting, as specifically admitted to and practiced by Mr. Ivey and Ms. Sun, cheating or unfair play? The individual playing cards do not change the answer. Complimentary drinks do not change the answer. Cocktail servers do not change the answer. There is no defense that changes the underlying nature of defendants’ edge sorting scheme. It is either permitted or not, lawful or unlawful, and that is the question before this court.”
The Borgata’s motion is scheduled to be heard next month.
