Phil Ivey Cheating Casinos...Where will it end?

Bundles of Cheat Cash?

Well, we've all heard much about Phil Ivey using the edge-sorting scam technique to scam Crockford's casino in London out of some $13 million. Now it has come out that the Borgata casino in Atlantic City is suing the poker star Ivey to recover the $10,000 they say he edge-sorted them out of using the same technique to scam that casino's baccarat tables.

Edge-sorting, which is taking advantage of casino playing cards that have already arrived to the gaming tables in a defective condition, allowing players to determine their values when they are face-down, is not in itself cheating. That's because Ivey did not physically alter the cards himself. But the casino alleges, just like Crockfords in London did, that he altered the dealers techniques in the dealing of the game, making them abandon normal procedure and dealing the way Ivey wanted them to so that he could read the backs of the defective cards. THAT is cheating, but, realizing that it would be very difficult if not impossible to gain a conviction, the Borgata is only going to try to recover the money via a lawsuit, accusing Ivey of cheating to win the ten mil.

Do I think they have a chance of recovering the money from Ivey via this lawsuit? Absolutely, although I doubt they would get a judgement for all the money lost. We might even see a settlement in this case between the Borgata and Ivey, which would be something of a first, at least to my knowledge. I mean a casino accusing someone of cheating their tables and then settling out of court...would be a first, right?