LONDON, Oct 2 — Phil Ivey, a 10-time winner of the World Series of Poker tournament, didn’t cheat to win £7.7 million (RM40.36 million) at a casino run by a unit of Genting Bhd, his lawyers said at the start of a London trial.
Ivey, 38, said he won the money playing a form of Baccarat called Punto Banco, using a technique known as edge sorting, at Genting’s Crockfords casino in London, Ivey’s lawyers said. Genting refused to pay up, saying the practice is unfair.
A casino “is a cat and mouse environment, it is an adversarial environment,” Richard Spearman, Ivey’s lawyer said in court. “It doesn’t mean you have to be dishonest.” Ivey, who sued Genting last year, says edge sorting isn’t dishonest and he should be paid the money.
Genting is Southeast Asia’s largest casino operator with a market capitalization of around £33.5 billion, lawyers for Ivey said in court documents. Last year it bought a Las Vegas site, once home to the Stardust resort, for US$350 million.
Both sides agree that Ivey was in the casino in August 2012 and that he won the money. “The issue is whether it amounted to cheating,” Christopher Pymont, Genting’s lawyer, said in documents filed at London’s High Court.
Edge sorting is a way a card player can gain an advantage by working out the value of a card by spotting flaws or particular patterns on the back of certain cards.
It’s agreed “in the present case that there are legitimate strategies that may used by skilled players which have the purpose and effect of providing the player, rather than the casino, with the advantage on particular bets,” Spearman said in court documents.
“Tactics, such as card marking and collusion with the dealer, are accepted by both sides,” to be cheating, he said.
The case is Ivey v. Genting Casinos, High Court of Justice Queen’s Bench Division, case no. HQ13X05873. — Bloomberg
