In April 2012, a group of 14 gamblers won $1.5 million playing mini-baccarat at the Golden Nugget Atlantic City after noticing that the cards weren't shuffled. Once players noticed the error, they increased their bets from $10 a hand to $5,000 and won 41 straight hands before the table was closed down.
A court case was opened following the incident and court rulings have seesawed between favourin[...] Read more » Gamblers Ordered To Return $1.5m Won Playing Mini-Baccarat
Joined: Mar '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 45 (F)
Posts: 2261
Surely the players were not in the wrong by winning.I think a fair conclusion would have been for the casino to pay out and then claim the money back from the manufacturer who were supposed to supply pre-shuffled cards. There is still $1million in chips outstanding so at least someone appeared to have been paid.
Joined: Jun '13
Location: Canada
Age: 80 (M)
Posts: 3700
If we read the whole story we see that the casino had reach a confidentail agreement with the cards manufacturers who were suppose to supply pe-shuffled cards.
And the judge never took that into consideration before making the players to pay back the casino.
One can suppose that there was money involved in the agreeement wit the manufacturer and the casino is collecting on both sides.
Sometime its very difficult to understand how a judge apply the laws in their decisions.
Joined: Mar '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 45 (F)
Posts: 2261
Quite a strange story when you read all the details,especially the part about the owner allowing the players to keep the winnings if they dropped other claims against the casino but they decided to go ahead with the claims.A bad idea to piss off a billionaire who thinks he's being reasonable.
They shouldn't have accepted that they noticed the error.This way, they would not be responsible for this accident, and the casino would sue their loses from those, who actually responsible for that.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 7371
This seems to be very harsh in my opinion. Surely, the casino was at fault and not the players. I am very hacked off just reading about this story so imagine how these players are feeling
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
well that just proves that it is far better option to be on the opposite side of the tables than gamblers- besides the fact that you have rules in your favor (house edge), you also have a wonderful option of not paying anything to dudes who didn't respect the house edge and won (shame on them).
Joined: Nov '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 67 (M)
Posts: 3361
So,the owner told them they could keep their winnings,all they had to do was drop other claims against the casino.Then the players got greedy and thought there was something else to be had here and now they're getting nothing it serves them right for being greedy
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Well if they have lost the money and tried to sue it back they would not get anything but if it is vice versa like in that story from the company against the people then yeah casino will get the edge as they will just use any loop holes in their terms and rules.
But for the players that won it, you have to believe it was too good to be true as you took advantage of the flaw, so we can see that where there is money there is always some good story, hopefully maybe they keep it as it was not their fault?
Joined: Mar '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 45 (F)
Posts: 2261
I wonder if the players at the table hadn't noticed that the deck wasn't shuffled and then went on to lose their money if the casino would have gone to these lengths to pay them back?Doubtful.
Joined: Sep '13
Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 1564
cool story
i wonder how many times players lost money because of casino games malfunction, but its usually next to impossible to notice it so nothing really happens. But every once in a while its players who benefit from it and of course, casinos cant allow that to happen ))
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
On the basic facts, This is a story of greed and manipulation. There will always be a winner and always be a loser; each of whom will be determined on the circumstances as they get drawn out. So, the casino didn't notice that the cards weren't shuffled. So what? They then did nothing to amend or change that situation until much later to end the game (their prerogative throughout). However, the players did notice and manipulated the situation in their favour. Can you decide who was in the wrong ( if anyone)?
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
Is this story telled right? If the game was illegal in thar state how could the casino be working publicly? It seems like a wrong decision from the judge because if these group of players will have to return their profits, all costumers who lost money there can claim it in court because of the illegitimate business that was going on there. What will the court say to these requests? If i have ever played there and lost money i would make an effort to remember when i had been there and how mich i had lost and i would ask the court to make that illegal casino to refund me. If everyone does this we will ve talking about much more money than those $1.5m...
And they admitted that the remarks? In this case, they just idiots. We had just quietly walk away into the sunset ... And, in principle, even if they admit ... it's GAME !!! And there are errors in the game not only by the players but also by the casino. And if the casino has made a mistake, it is a problem casinos. And the money to be paid without any problems! Court injustice !!!
This pre-shuffle and post-shuffle business always fascinated me, how many times could a casino or some player - without a doubt lucky gambler - get away with something like this before anyone noticing. Haha, if they weren't that much greedy in the first place they might have their money still.
