Atlantic City’s Golden Nugget casino is suing 14 players as well as a card manufacturer after an unshuffled pack of cards led to the group winning $1.5million. The MailOnline report the venue is refusing to pay out the winnings, which were won over 41 hands of baccarat on April 30. It’s despite the fact that no cheating even took place and the gamblers simply expanded from $10 a hand to $5k after they realized the cards hadn’t been shuffled.
Laywer Benjamin Dash is representing the 14, and said: “The Golden Nugget appealed to gamblers to come in and play games licensed and sanctioned by the state of New Jersey,” he said. “My clients did exactly that, and then were denied their winnings.
“There is absolutely no law in New Jersey that would permit the Golden Nugget to declare the game illegal because it failed to provide shuffled cards.”
Golden Nugget claim they flooded the casino floor with personnel, as they believed a ‘sophisticated swindling and cheating scheme’ was in progress. They also wrote: “From the beginning to the end of play, however, plaintiff could not identify any particular act of those players that actually constituted swindling and cheating,”
In light of that statement they allowed nine of the players cash out $558,900 worth of chips and there are still five more yet to cash the remaining $977,800. The episode has also seen three of the accused launch counter-suits against the casino claiming discrimination based on their Chinese heritage.
The Nugget refutes the claim, and released a further statement, which read: “The Golden Nugget values all of its customers and would never discriminate against anyone, including the Asian community. In fact, the Golden Nugget designed and built an Asian gaming area and restaurant to specifically attract Asian guests to the casino.”
Gemaco is the Missouri based card manufacturer involved and the Golden Nugget are suing over a defective shipment of cards it claimed cost them the money. The casino becomes the second AC casino to fall victim to an error relating to unshuffled cards – the Trump Taj Mahal suffering a similar fate in December. Since then the latter has installed a $2million+ security system and the Golden Nugget may now do the same.
