By Wayne Parry
Associated Press
Gamblers who won $1.5 million at an Atlantic City casino after realizing the cards hadn’t been shuffled have been ordered to return the money.
State Superior Court Judge Donna Taylor has sided with the Golden Nugget casino in its long-running dispute with 14 gamblers who say the fault wasn’t theirs and they should be allowed to keep their winnings.
At issue were games of minibaccarat played in April 2012 using decks of cards the casino had paid a manufacturer to pre-shuffle but that hadn’t been shuffled. Once players realized the pattern in which the cards were emerging they drastically upped their bets from $10 a hand to $5,000 and won 41 straight hands.
In the ruling, issued Monday and publicized by the casino on Thursday, the judge determined the games were illegal under state law because they didn’t conform to gambling regulations specifying the way each game must be played.
“The dealer did not pre-shuffle the cards immediately prior to the commencement of play, and the cards were not pre-shuffled in accordance with any regulation,” the judge wrote. “Thus, a literal reading of the regulations … entails that the game violated the (Casino Control) Act, and consequently was not authorized.”
Taylor ruled that the gamblers must return any cash paid to them by the casino and any outstanding chips in their possession. The casino in turn must refund the gamblers the money they first put up to play.
Tom Pohlman, general manager of the Golden Nugget, said he was pleased with the court’s ruling. “We believe it was the right decision,” Pohlman said.
A lawyer for the gamblers did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the decision. A lawyer for the casino’s partner, Landry’s Inc., said he expected the decision to be appealed.
The Golden Nugget bought what were supposed to be pre-shuffled cards from a Kansas City manufacturer, which acknowledged in court it failed to shuffle them. The casino said its litigation with the manufacturer has been resolved but an agreement prevents it from revealing details.
The judge’s ruling was the latest in a series of decisions that have seesawed between favoring the casino and favoring the gamblers. The owner of the casino, Tillman Fertitta, a Texas billionaire, originally decided to let the players keep their winnings, but that offer was contingent on them dropping other claims they made against the casino, which they declined to do.
The casino paid out about$500,000 in winnings for the disputed games. About $1 million in chips remains outstanding.
Replies:
Posted by: getagrip on February 15, 2015, 7:21 pm
Posted by: Finisher on February 15, 2015, 11:03 pm
If the casino won 41 hands in a row nothing would have been said or returned .Maybe they should just split it down the middle and call it even .
I thought that they always shuffle the new decks . LAZY or what the heck . Whee were the pit critters when this was going on .
Good Rolling. 🙂 🙂
Posted by: Skinny on February 16, 2015, 6:38 am
But by the time he got involved it was too late. Play was continuing while he was talking to his management. They finished the shoe which had the unshuffled cards from Gemco and everyone quit. Some of the players cashed in their chips right away while others kept them overnight.
The next day no one could cash in any larger denomination chips than $500. That went on for the next two or three days. Finally the casino would cash the larger chips but they made sure they knew from where you got the larger chips. They checked with the table you played at to find out if that is where you won the larger chips. They would not cash any chips that were won at the mini-bac game which had the unshuffled cards.
