An experienced gambler who exploits sloppy dealers and flaws in games has won a legal battle against the casino giant Star after accusing him and a friend of cheating at a Gold Coast establishment four years ago.
After playing Pontoon, the game was given exclusion notices by The Star Entertainment Queensland Ltd Star in March 2018, both Mark Timothy Grant and his friend Nathan Trent Anderson.
The couple was not allowed entry into the casino giant's Queensland venues due to the notices.
In 2020, Mr Grant and Mr Anderson sought a review of the notices by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal QCAT. The notices were set aside after QCAT found no grounds for the pair to be excluded from casinos on the Gold Coast or in Brisbane.
Star said that Grant had engaged in edge-sorting, an illegal form of play under the Casino Control Act, which involves looking at cards for manufacturing defects that may cause some edges to be marginally shorter than others or prints to be asymmetrical.
The defects can be found on specific card numbers in a deck.
The judgement said that during the Pontoon games that triggered the exclusion notice Mr Grant was sitting close to the dealer, but not playing, using hand gestures to indicate which cards to play.
Star contends that the behaviours it has identified, including collusion and edge-sorting, are behaviours that are dishonest in nature and have the potential to affect the integrity of gaming, the judgement said.
Star's opinion is that Mr Grant and Mr Anderson used an error or a fault in the gaming equipment to obtain a benefit. The tribunal heard that Grant had previously been investigated by Star for his gameplay.
The judgement said that advantage play is not cheating or dishonest, and that he believes that playing this way is not a threat to casinos where the staff are competent, and the games are operated correctly.
He told the tribunal players that they often collaborated in an effort to get the dealer to bust, he denied edge-sorting, saying the practice was impossible in Pontoon because players do not touch the cards. He noticed that the cards were asymmetrical and said he is free to speculate on what the next card is, but at no time did he know exactly what the next card was. The tribunal was told that the cards used in the game were Angel playing cards.
The judgement said that the cards had previously been the subject of discussion in another court case where the manufacturer argued that any anomalies were within a contractually specified tolerance of up to 0.3 mm In Mr Grant's case, the judgement said that Star was aware of the anomaly associated with Angel cards and 96 of the cards used during the game were irregular.
QCAT found that the couple had not engaged in edge-sorting at Star on the Gold Coast in 2018.
The judgement said Star was aware of the defects in the cards but continued to allow them to be used.
The judgement said that Pontoon was not a game of chance. Noting an asymmetrical back on a card is of no use unless one knows what lies beneath it.
In this case, 33 per cent of the cards in play had asymmetrical backs and 20 per cent had a low value, while 13 per cent had a high value.
The judgement said that it would seem to be extremely difficult to gain any sort of 'leg-up' in those circumstances.
The cards were in plain view of the dealer and subject to the casino's inspection regime.
The exclusion notices were revoked by the court.