The Atlantic City-based Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa is suing professional poker player Phil Ivey for allegedly cheating his way to over $9 million dollars in gambling earnings. In brief, the Borgata accuses Ivey of noticing defects in the cards and using those observations to give him an advantage over the casino in a baccarat session back in 2009.
The lawsuit states that Ivey used a technique known as “edge sorting” to cheat the house out of millions. Allegedly, once Ivey and his co-conspirator Cheng Yin Sun noticed the cards’ defects, they would instruct the dealers to turn the cards in different positions so that they could be identified during game play. The filing went on to say that Ivey insisted on using the same deck of cards and automatic shufflers during the games in order to ensure that the orientation of his “sorted” cards remained the same. The complaint read, “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.”
Ivey is one of the world’s premier poker players, having won 9 World Series of Poker bracelets since beginning his professional gambling career at the age of 17. Still, this isn’t the first time Ivey has been accused of “cheating” his way to big winnings. Ivey was previously accused of using this “edge sorting” technique to scam the Crockfords casino in London out of 7.8 million pounds back in August of 2012.
When pressed for further comment Liza Costandino, a spokeswoman for the Borgata, stated “We believe the lawsuit speaks for itself, and in accordance with company policy, we will not be commenting any further on pending litigation.”
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