Casino players ordered to repay winnings

The general casino news this week focuses on a court case concerning an Atlantic City casino who failed to shuffle cards correctly, in fact failed to shuffle them at all, with the result that gamblers won a lot of money. This is believed to be the first case of its kind and it arises from the fact that some 3 years ago the Golden Nugget Casino bought cards which were supposed to be preshuffled from a Kansas City manufacturer but it turns out that they weren’t. The casino itself also failed to shuffle the cards prior to play so 14 players who were playing mini baccarat which is a version of the Baccarat that you can find at an online casino noticed that the sequence of cards was predictable and promptly increased their stakes and won 41 hands on the trot coining about $1.5 million. The casino claimed the game was illegal and the case has been going backwards and forwards for years until a New Jersey State Superior Court Judge ruled in favour of the casino and ordered the casino players to return the money and any outstanding chips. Fortunately online casinos do not have this problem but the ruling was based on the fact that the Casino Control Act demands that cards be shuffled which they weren’t which in turn meant that the game was not authorised. Irish casino players will probably think this a little unfair as it was not the fault of the casino players but fortunately online casinos use random number generators rather than actual cards but it does possibly warn us about using online casinos that are not correctly licensed or operating in an approved jurisdiction as they might also be tempted into not paying out large winnings. All online casinos listed at casinos.ie are correctly licensed.