European Gaming Lawyer magazine Spring 2016 | Page 30

concept of cheating; for example, it is not
obvious whether dishonesty is a necessary
element of the offence, or if it is, how that
works in practice.
Mr. Ivey was suing the casino for
his winnings, because, as far as he was
concerned, he had not cheated. Indeed, the
Judge found him to be not only a truthful
witness but a frank one as well. What was
happening was something called “Edge
Counting” in Punto Banco, a form of
Baccarat. Neither Mr. Ivey nor his assistant
ever touched the cards, and there is no
suggestion that any of the staff at the casino
colluded with them or were dishonest. The

cards will give a long-term edge of roughly
6.5% to the punter over the house if played
perfectly accurately. Obviously, if the casino
knows what is going on, so as not to lose its
edge, it will take steps to prevent it.
For the punter to get that knowledge,
three conditions need to occur:(1) The same shoe of cards must be used
more than once.
(2) Cards with a face value of 7, 8 or 9
must be turned through 180 degrees in
comparison with the other cards (this is
edge sorting).
(3) When re-shuffled, no part of the shoe
must be rotated.

“Many gamblers are notoriously
superstitious and casinos “play” on quirky
and superstitious behaviour by customers
and humour them.”
backs of many decks of cards are patterned,
and this was the case at Crockfords in
London. Although it was a symmetrical
pattern, there was a 0.3mm difference in
border width of the pattern between one
side and the other, and if turned through
180 degrees, it could be recognised if one
were able to spot the tiny difference. The
Judge went into great detail about how
Punto Banco was played, and for those of
you who do not play it, the players and the
croupier are dealt cards by the croupier
from a shoe. The aim is for the value of the
cards to add up to as close to 9 as possible;
cards up 9 are valued at face value, but
higher than that count as nothing. Any
cards together that add up to more than
10, have 10 points deducted from the total
so, for example, cards of 6 + 5 (11) equal
only 1. The bets are placed before any cards
are dealt, and there is, of course, a house
edge. The crucial point is that cards with a
face value of 7, 8 and 9 are high value cards
and, if dealt to the player, it is more likely
that the player will win, but if dealt to the
croupier, he is more likely to win. It was
agreed that the knowledge of who has those

30 | European Gaming Lawyer | Spring Issue | 2016

In Crockfords, if a player touches the shoe,
it and all the cards in it are discarded, so
there must be no touching. Therefore, the
changing of the orientation of the cards was
done by persuading the croupier to turn
the high value cards 7, 8 and 9 through 180
degrees so that they could be spotted by the
minutely different border. The way this was
done was by playing on the fact that many
gamblers are notoriously superstitious and,
per the Judge, casinos “play” on quirky and
superstitious behaviour by customers and
humour them.
It is important to get the same shoe of
cards over again, and Mr. Ivey asked, on
the basis of “If I win, can I say I want the
same cards again?” if he could. The casino
humoured him and agreed. Then Ms. Sun
persuaded t Hܛ