Phil Ivey is seeking a dismissal of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spas’ suit against him that claims he cheated at baccarat by exploiting a design flaw in the cards used in the game.
Ivey says his $9.6 million win was brought about entirely from his own card-playing skills.
In April, the Borgata sued Ivey, alleging he and a partner exploited a defect in cards that enabled them to read the cards and therefore ask dealer to sort and arrange them to their advantage—a technique called edge sorting. The casino says Ivey had an unfair advantage on four occasions between April and October 2012. The casino says edge sorting violates New Jersey casino gambling regulations.
Ivey’s court motion asserts that his win was simply the result of skill and good observation.
“Each and every penny of defendants’ winnings was the result of sheer skill,” Ivey’s lawyers wrote in court papers, according to the Associated Press.
The motion asks for a dismissal because Ivey and his the associate did nothing that could be considered cheating; that a six-month statute of limitations to recover money lost in a supposedly illegal game had expired; and that supposed violations of state casino regulations can be pursued only by state gambling regulators, not by casinos, the AP reported.
The lawsuit alleges that Ivey saw a defective pattern on the cards and he and his companion instructed dealers to flip cards in particular ways—depending on whether they were desirable cards in baccarat—so he could identify them coming out of the shoe.
Ivey also wanted the cards shuffled by an automatic shuffling machine so they arrangement would not change.
Ivey’s says he simply noticed things that anyone playing the game could have observed and bet accordingly, according to the AP.
