Poker News – PokerNews contributor and East Coast-based attorney Maurice “Mac” VerStandig is an expert on the American gaming scene. Well-versed in casino management from common issues of fraud and theft prevention to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, VerStandig has a strong background in bankruptcy work and is also skilled in the strategic valuation and monetizing of complex assets. He applies that knowledge to all areas of his practice, from fraud recoveries to traditional insolvency proceedings. Here, VerStandig takes a look at the Borgata lawsuit against Phil Ivey and offers his opinion on its chances of success.
There is a marked irony, bordering on outright hypocrisy, underlying the Borgata’s lawsuit against Phil Ivey, his associate Cheng Yin Sun, and Gemaco, Inc., as a casino openly in the business of exploiting statistical advantages has filed a legally hyperbolic, seemingly overreaching, complaint against a couple of players who may have also been in the business of exploiting statistical advantages. To be sure, the Borgata appears to have a very real case against Gemaco, a playing card manufacturer that is apparently not very good at manufacturing playing cards, but the Atlantic City casino’s claims against Ivey and Sun strike as too richly imaginative to withstanding judicial scrutiny, and ultimately serve to only soil the relative ethos of an otherwise robust pleading against Gemaco.
For those not familiar with Ivey and Sun’s scheme (the details of which Ivey has openly acknowledged in the context of another case at an unrelated casino), the duo first took to Crockfords — a swank British gaming parlor — and then the Borgata — the only New Jersey casino even vaguely close to being “swank” — for a series of marathon sessions of Punto Banco and Mini Baccarat. Different nomenclature notwithstanding, these are essentially the same game. And while not as iconic as poker, blackjack or craps in the modern gaming lexicon, baccarat has long been among the most regal of betting events, even playing prominent roles in Dr. No and Casino Royale, acting as a second fiddle only to a certain beverage that ought not be stirred.
The actual rules of baccarat are relatively unimportant, other than to recognize that it is a pure game of chance dealt with a standard 52-card deck, that the house edge is narrow, and that baccarat players have a long and tawdry history of introducing some truly bizarre superstitions into gaming parlors. Gently blowing on the dice at a craps table is downright sensible behavior compared to some of what goes on in baccarat pits on a daily basis, and casinos are remarkably adept at making sure their prized gamblers not realize just how absurd they look engaging longwinded philosophical conversations with the deuce of clubs.
