A man with a history of trying to cheat Atlantic City casinos will have to settle for swindling fellow prisoners out of cigarettes for a very, very long time. On Thursday, Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Donna Taylor sentenced 57-year-old Derek Bethea (pictured) to 17 years in jail after he was convicted in May of swindling and cheating at multiple AC casinos.
Last August, Bethea placed a $1,100 late bet at a craps table at the Borgata Hotel & Casino. He thought he’d gotten away with it, but was detained the following day at the Tropicana and issued a summons. Despite this setback, Bethea was back in action two weeks later, unsuccessfully attempting to place late bets at Resorts, which earned him another summons. The very next day, Bethea attempted the same schtick at Revel, after which he was arrested.
Bethea has two previous convictions for placing late bets at roulette tables, each of which resulted in multi-year prison sentences. He’d only been released from prison weeks before he placed his late wager at the Borgata. Bethea must serve at least seven years of his current sentence.
GOLDEN NUGGET NOT LIABLE FOR UNSHUFFLED CARD COCKUP
The Golden Nugget has been let off the hook for the $1.5m some gamblers claimed to be owed after an unshuffled cards controversy. In April 2012, a group of 14 gamblers were at one of the Nugget’s mini-baccarat tables when they noticed that the cards coming out of the dealing shoe hadn’t been shuffled. Knowing what cards were coming, the gamblers upped their wagers from $10/hand to $5k/hand and won 41 consecutive hands. Nine lucky punters cashed out nearly $560k but casino security prevented the other five from cashing in another $1m.
The Nugget sued to reclaim the $560k from the nine players while the other five sued to get their unpaid $1m and claimed that the casino had unlawfully detained them following the brouhaha. That September, a judge ruled in favor of the gamblers on the money issue. Nugget owner Tilman Fertitta said his company would pay the $1m if the gamblers would drop their unlawful detention claims. The gamblers refused so Fertitta withdrew his offer and the issue went back to court.
On Friday, Superior Court Judge James Isman dismissed the racketeering complaint against the casino, ruling that the unshuffled cards meant the game the gamblers were playing was illegal under state casino regulations. Isman also gave the Nugget leave to sue to reclaim the $560k the gamblers had cashed out. The Nugget says it had been “100% vindicated” while the gamblers haven’t yet offered their opinion. The illegal detention claim is still pending.
The Nugget previously reached a confidential settlement with Missouri-based card manufacturer Gemaco, who mistakenly shipped the cards in their unshuffled state. Gemaco is currently a party to a separate lawsuit involving poker player Phil Ivey, who the Borgata sued in April over alleged ‘edge sorting’ at their baccarat tables.
