An Atlantic City casino is suing the manufacturer of decks of cards and lucky gamblers who walked off with over $1.5 in winnings.

Golden Nugget Atlantic City is suing Gemaco, Inc., a Kansas City, Missouri, playing card manufacturer, contending that the cards were unshuffled, despite being promised they were pre-shuffled and ready to use. According to the lawsuit, the alleged error cost the casino more than $1.5 million as the players at the mini-baccarat game increased their bets -- from $10 a hand to over $5,000, after seeing the same sequence of cards dealt over and over. There were forty-one consecutive winning hands. The casino's lawsuit asserts the gamblers and the casino both began the game believing it was legal and proper and that when the players kept winning over and over again it became unfair odds for the casino and, therefore, violated state gambling regulations requiring all casino games to offer fair odds.

"From the beginning to the end of play, however, plaintiff could not identify any particular act of those players that actually constituted swindling and cheating," the casino wrote in its lawsuit. Accordingly, it let nine of the players cash out $558,900 worth of chips. The other players have $977,800 in chips that they have not yet cashed out and their lawyers argue that they should be paid. A countersuit has been filed.

"The Golden Nugget appealed to gamblers to come in and play games licensed and sanctioned by the state of New Jersey," the gamblers' lawyer, Benjamin Dash, said. "My clients did exactly that, and then were denied their winnings. There is absolutely no law in New Jersey that would permit the Golden Nugget to declare the game illegal because it failed to provide shuffled cards."

—Source:  nj.com