They took down the house — again.
An Atlantic City casino must cough up about $1 million to a group of savvy gamblers who racked up a massive Baccarat windfall after realizing their cards hadn’t been shuffled, a judge ruled yesterday.
The Golden Nugget had argued that the 14 players weren’t entitled to the massive chip pile because the unshuffled cards created unfair odds against the casino.
But that argument went bust yesterday after Judge James Isman ruled that the casino was responsible for shuffling its cards, and that the players simply took advantage of the hands they were dealt.
“There is no clear and convincing, real evidence that there were unlawful actions,” Isman said as fuming casino brass bristled in the gallery. “I don’t consider this to be a rigged game. There is no proof that the players obtained those chips unlawfully.”
The Baccarat players slowly began to notice that the same sequence of cards was being dished out in the April game, and gradually upped their bets over 41 consecutive winning hands.
Unaware that the cards weren’t being shuffled, casino staffers swarmed the impossibly lucky table and scoured it for any signs of cheating.
Players cashed in more than $550,000 in chips, but the Golden Nugget was refusing to pay off the remaining $1 million or so in winnings.