In Atlantic City’s Borgata hotel an interesting scam occurred, not from a lowly criminal criminal or mafia boss, but one of America’s biggest poker stars. Phil Ivey, a big name in the famous television-broadcast World Series of Poker, is being sued by the casino over an alleged marked card dispute.
Ivey used a printing error to his advantage – playing cards made by Gemaco, Inc allegedly were misprinted on the back on key strategy cards, giving Ivey an advantage as he would know which cards were being dealt to whom, then bet accordingly. The Borgata casino is also suing Gemaco Inc for their error.
How did this all go down? Since Ivey had a high roller status at Atlantic City casinos, the casinos allowed him enough freedom to pull off his scam. Borgata allowed him to provide his own sealed playing cards and approved his request to use an automatic card shuffler. This shuffler made it easier to spot the misprints, as a human shuffler would have mixed up the cards too much and made it difficult to spot the errors. Ivey was also permitted to bring a guest to his table.
Ivey pulled off this scam during multiple poker sessions in 2012, and his celebrity poker partner Cheng Yin Sun is also alleged to have participated in the scam.