Phil Ivey edge-sorting pal Cheng Yin Sun is one of three gamblers suing Foxwoods Casino Resort for over $3 million in withheld winnings. Although Ivey is in a roundabout way involved in the Foxwoods case, Sun and Ivey are both currently the topic of a court case brought by the Borgata in Atlantic City, which is wanting to recover $9.6 million it paid out to the pair adhering to a stint at the mini-baccarat tables in 2012.

Both cases involve the usage of edge-sorting, and also the debate over its legality, or lack thereof; issue that is fifty shades of grey, so far as what the law states is concerned. The Borgata says the practice is cheating and is unlawful under state gaming law; Sun and Ivey state it is not.

Edge-sorting is an approach in which the gambler is ready to look for the value of the card by observing manufacturing that is subtle and asymmetries into the pattern on the back, and the skilled edge-sorter can turn the odds in their or her benefit to the tune of six or seven percent.

Can it be cheating? Well, there is the rub, and now we’re more likely to find out quickly, once the theories of both ongoing parties are tested in courts on both sides of the Atlantic. The gamblers declare that they are using pure skill to caress chances in their favor (and edge-sorting is no mean feat, requiring freakish abilities of observance), while the casinos are claiming it’s fraud, pure and simple.

$1.6 Million in Stakes Held Right Back

Because well once the Foxwoods and Borgata cases, Ivey can be suing London’s Crockford’s Casino, which has withheld $12.1 million after Ivey and Sun’s visit there, additionally in 2012. The latest case makes no reference to Ivey, however, and is brought by Sun and two associates, Long Mei Fan and Zong Yang Li. The trio claims that the money owed for them by Foxwoods comprises $1.1 million in winnings and their $1.6 million in stakes.

‚Basically, edge-sorting is possible because some brands of playing cards aren’t cut symmetrically across their backs and some players are gifted with eyesight keen sufficient to share with the difference,‘ says the suit. ‚If Foxwoods and Foxwoods management knew that plaintiffs were edge-sorting and let them practice their kind of advantage play anyway, intending to keep their losses when they destroyed although not honor their winnings if they won, this might be deliberate fraud.‘

Unprecedented

The situations are fascinating as they are completely without precedent, as expert in gaming law Maurice VerStandig underlined recently.

‚Edge sorting falls somewhere between card counting and weighted eyes that are snake and regulations is yet to figure out just where,‘ he said. ‚There isn’t any real precedent for cases like this, and when the judicial system cannot find precedent, it goes into search of analogy, something that will not much help here, either, because edge sorting is maybe not really analogous to anything…‘

While Sun’s name differs on the documents through the Foxwoods case to those associated with Borgata, here spelled Cheung Yin Sun instead of Cheng Yin Sun, Marvin Vining, an attorney representing the Foxwoods plaintiffs, has confirmed they are one and exactly the same.

‚that Cheung can be confirmed by me Yin Sun was also Phil Ivey’s playing partner in mini-baccarat sessions that gave rise to the Borgata lawsuit in New Jersey while the Crockfords lawsuit in London,‘ said Vining. ‚She played with different playing partners at Foxwoods, and the circumstances of most three lawsuits are slightly various. However the Foxwoods plaintiffs did employ essentially the same sort of edge-sorting strategy as associated with the other two legal actions.‘