{"id":115555,"date":"2019-09-23T15:18:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T22:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=115555"},"modified":"2019-09-23T15:55:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T22:55:02","slug":"nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"NJ Regulators Accused of Passing the Buck in $10 Million Phil Ivey Edge-Sorting Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poker superstar Phil Ivey\u2019s longstanding battle with the Borgata<\/a> Atlantic City hit the appeal court late last week.<\/p>\n

\"Phil
At least one Third Circuit appellate judge appeared to show sympathy for Phil Ivey in his case against the Borgata and expressed frustration with New Jersey gaming regulators for not ruling on the matter. Could the tide be turning?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ivey\u2019s lawyers are charged with the task of convincing a panel of three Third Circuit appellate judges that their client legitimately won $9.6 million during a three-day mini-baccarat rampage in 2011 by using skill rather than illegal deception.<\/p>\n

In 2016, a federal judge ruled that Ivey and his friend, Kelly Sun, had broken their gambling contract with the Borgata by employing a practice known as edge-sorting, which muscled the odds in their favor.<\/p>\n

Edge-sorting is a practice in which skilled gamblers can spot tiny asymmetrical flaws in the patterns on the backs of playing cards that allow them to differentiate between cards that favor the player and those that favor the house.<\/p>\n

Ivey and Sun were liable<\/a> to repay the $9.6 million in winnings, plus $504,000 the pair won playing craps, legitimately, with the money won at baccarat, the judge ruled.<\/p>\n

The two cardsharps have never denied they were edge-sorting, and are unapologetic about the fact. They claim they were acting within the rules of the game and were still gambling with their own money \u2013 initially, at least \u2013 and still could have lost.<\/p>\n

Almost Baccarat <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The judge in the original case found that Ivey and Sun had — by gaining the edge in the contest — transformed the game into something that was in \u201ccomplete contravention of the fundamental purpose of legalized gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Put simply, they had created a game that was like baccarat, but was not exactly baccarat, because the central tenet of baccarat is that the house wins over time, and so, this \u201calmost baccarat\u201d thing was not licensed and regulated by the State of New Jersey’s Casino Control Act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But according to John Brennan of NJOnlineGambling<\/em>, who was present during last week\u2019s session, at times it was New Jersey’s gambling regulators who were on trial for refusing to pass judgment on this essentially regulatory matter, despite requests by judges to chime in as friends of the court.<\/p>\n

Judges Sympathetic to Ivey?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Judge Marjorie Rendell expressed frustration that regulators had responded to the question of whether or not Ivey and Sun had cheated — and therefore violated the Casino Control Act — by suggesting it was \u201ca question of fact to be determined by a jury,\u201d and not, apparently, the New Jersey gambling regulator itself.<\/p>\n

Rendell appeared to emit a modicum of sympathy for Ivey and Sun, noting Borgata had agreed the terms of play before the game commenced.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing was hidden from you,\u201d she told the Borgata\u2019s counsel, Jonathan Massey. \u201cThese cards weren\u2019t marked \u2014 here you had equal access.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCheating may be clever \u2014 but it\u2019s still cheating,\u201d Massey shot back. \u201cEdge-sorting is antithetical to baccarat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case, as ever, continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poker superstar Phil Ivey\u2019s longstanding battle with the Borgata Atlantic City hit the appeal court late last week. Ivey\u2019s lawyers are charged with the task of convincing a panel of three Third Circuit appellate judges that their client legitimately won $9.6 million during a three-day mini-baccarat rampage in 2011 by using skill rather than illegal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":115560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNJ Regulators Accused of Passing the Buck in Phil Ivey Borgata Appeal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Phil Ivey v Borgata edge-sorting case makes it to the appeal court, where there appeared to be some sympathy for the poker player\u2019s case.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NJ Regulators Accused of Passing the Buck in Phil Ivey Borgata Appeal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Phil Ivey v Borgata edge-sorting case makes it to the appeal court, where there appeared to be some sympathy for the poker player\u2019s case.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-23T22:18:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-23T22:55:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ivey.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/\",\"name\":\"NJ Regulators Accused of Passing the Buck in Phil Ivey Borgata Appeal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ivey.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-23T22:18:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-23T22:55:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Phil Ivey v Borgata edge-sorting case makes it to the appeal court, where there appeared to be some sympathy for the poker player\u2019s case.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nj-regulators-accused-of-passing-the-buck-in-phil-ivey-borgata-appeal\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ivey.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ivey.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"At least one Third Circuit appellate judge appeared to show sympathy for Phil Ivey in his case against the Borgata and expressed frustration with the DGE for not ruling om the matter. 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