The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, in Atlantic City, has filed a notice with the New Jersey court, stating that it plans to introduce the UK High Court judgment from the recent lawsuit involving the Genting owned Crockford’s Casino, and Phil Ivey, in its own civil case against the greatest poker player in the world.
You don’t need the brain of Christopher Langan to have realized that once Phil Ivey lost his case against the Genting owned Crockford’s Casino, it would have been extremely difficult for him to emerge from his heads-up encounter with the Borgata without a serious loss of blood.
That realization has just become a little more solidified after the Marina District Development Company, LLC, a joint venture of Boyd Gaming Corporation and a divestiture trust belonging to MGM Resorts International – the string holders behind the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa – filed a notice to a New Jersey court, declaring their intention to introduce the UK High Court judgment into their own court room battle against Ivey.
Ivey recently lost his battle to receive the £7.7m he won playing Punto Banco, over two nights in 2010, in London’s Crockford’s casino, after the Judge ruled that Ivey, and his partner Cheung Yin Sun’s use of ‘edge sorting’ tactics constituted unfair play and therefore ‘cheating.’
Crockford’s Casino returned the £1m that Ivey originally wired to them to play in those games, meaning he is only out of pocket court expenses, but the situation with Borgata is completely different.
Ivey is reported to have won $9.6m from the Baccarat tables of the Borgata during four sessions during 2012. That was over two years ago. Ivey is a gambler. Let’s hope he has not been on a significant downswing since that date, or he could be in a serious pickle when it comes to the payback plan.
It seems the significant thorn in the toe of Ivey is the legal view that the UK judgment was not taken as a direct contravention of the UK Gambling Act 2005, but instead ‘principles of common law.’
The Borgata legal team are also going to argue that Ivey’s legal counsel should not be allowed to re-argue that ‘edge sorting’ is not a form of cheating since that determination has already occurred in the UK court.
Daniel Negreanu Supports His Mate
In an exclusive interview with PokerListings, the man many believe to be the second greatest poker player in the world, has just leapt to the defense of the man who sits just one rung above him.
Speaking from the World Series of Poker in Australia, Daniel Negreanu, told PokerListings that he believed the Crockford’s case might have delivered a short term gain for the Genting Casino company, but they will suffer over the long term as high rollers avoid their establishments like the plague.
“I think it’s ludicrous, I think it’s absurd, completely unfair and absolutely wrong,’ said Negreanu before continuing, “Casinos, by nature, are designed to take advantage of people by manipulating and deceiving them into thinking they can win. A player gets the best of them, in the sense that he finds flaws in what they’re offering and they should go, ‘Oops, we screwed up.’ They should pay it like honorable people and then move on and address their issues.”
There is one man who Negreanu blames for this whole thing and that’s the judge.
“In every logical human being’s mind it’s an open and shut case, but the judge ****ed him in the ass,” said Negreanu.
Ouch!
I think that would hurt more than the loss of the £7.7m.
