Golden Nugget Baccarat Issue Could Be Costly

The Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City is caught in the middle of an epic debacle as it lost $1.5 million to players at one of its Baccarat tables after the dealer put unshuffled cards into play.

Management at the casino is suing 14 players who it claims took advantage of the casino after the bad cards were put into play. The players won 41 hands in a row while the unshuffled cards were in play.

Casino management originally thought the players were cheating, but it was soon discovered that the cards were not shuffled. The cards were ordered from Missouri gaming manufacturer Gemaco, Inc. pre-shuffled.

A statement released by the Golden Nugget claims that "The gamblers unlawfully took advantage of the Golden Nugget when they caught on to the pattern and increased their bets from as little as $10 to $5,000."

Three of the players have already filed counter suits against the casino. One of those players claims that casino security confined him to his room for eight hours-- which could be tantamount to kidnapping.

Various former casino managers and pit bosses have made themselves available to the media this week following the issue and revealed some of the drastic measures that casinos take in order to protect themselves. These measures include:

• Even in the case of a pack of pre-shuffled cards from the manufacturer, the packs must be broken open under surveillance video. Then laid out in order and examined physically for imperfections. The cards are then spread out on the table and mixed in with each other before being placed in the auto-shuffler machine.

• If the shuffler machine stops working for any reason a red light will show. It informs surveillance and floor/pit/dealer something is faulty and requires immediate investigation.

• Given these dollar amounts, why was Security not watching this game, or why did they not intervene immediately? By law the minute a customer hits $7000 in winnings on any game the dealer must call surveillance and have them take an image of the player. Over $10,000 and they must obtain and verify the player's ID -- this is federal income tax law.