Ivey and Sun Get New Life in UK Edge-Sorting Baccarat Scam Lawsuit

Infamous Baccarat Cheat Pair

It had appeared that Phil Ivey and his baccarat-cheat partner Cheng Yin Sun were running out of options in their lawsuit against Crockfords Casino in London to force the casino to pay them the $12 million they scammed from it back in 2012, but now the UK supreme court has granted the cheat-pair a final appeal, so Ivey and Sun are still not dead yet.

The UK lower courts have ruled that Crockfords does not have to pay Ivey and Sun their cheat profits, but they have never ruled that what the pair actually did constituted cheating. The reason why I call this cheating is because they altered the deal of the game in order to gain a material advantage against the casino, which in practically all casino jurisdictions is the very definition of cheating.

Ivey and Sun are in a similar situation in New Jersey with a lawsuit over the same edge-sorting which led to antoher huge casino baccarat win. Although this time the victim-casino, the Atlantic City Borgata, had already paid Ivey and Sun their $10 million and sucessfully sued to recover the money from them.

Ivey is still trying to win a final appeal in that case as well.

My take: I don't think the UK supreme court will reverse the lower courts' decisions--I sure hope they don't.