Agreed. Last 3 emails and texts i have sent Borgata vice presidents have been ignored (i wanted to know when my check for $19,323 would arrive). they've accepted the DGE decision, purchased the new chips, and now consider this old news. they are betting (probably astutely) that the poker world will also move on and they will suffer little because of the event one cancellation. my suspicion is that they are, of course, not in any way happy with the thought of legal action of 27 players trying to recover their equity but certainly not in a panic either

Why exactly? DGE mandated minimums. In no way is it standing in the way of the Borgata making the 27 whole.

If the Borgata gave something more back to the 27 they would and should make a show out of it.

I did not play in this event, but feel VERY strongly this ruling and borgata's response to the ruling are incredibly unfair.

I for one will go out of my way to never give Borgata my business.

I have been playing poker for 26 years, and 18 as a professional, and this is one of the most unjust things I have ever seen.

It makes me ashamed to call myself a poker player.

Shame on the NGE for a lazy, incestuous ruling.

And shame on you Borgata too. For 912k ( which is a pittance to your bottom line ) you could have made this right. This WAS partially your fault for having different 5k chips in the first place, and not responding more quickly to concerns when first reported.

As Matt Glantz mentioned, this sets a terrible precedent for any future rulings in compromised events, and actually discourages reporting cheating.

Amazing.

While the resulting resolution is awful, it did extinguish the bulk of the claims against the Borgata. The wind is out of the class action sails with only the bustout gripers and the 27 remaining. 1/3 of the 27 are probably happy with the 20k. Realistically, for the Borgata to resolve the claims of the 27, they will be required to sign a release.

I hope the 27 band together and sue'em.

I am sure there is an agreement associated with cashing your checks that indemnifies the Borgata from any further legal action. Anyone have any feedback on what that agreement says?

Did he use those fake hundo's they found from that other scam?

mine was the $560 check + generic letter from Joe Lupo apologizing/saying DGE made a ruling etc... as for the final 27 it might be a different story

I'm sure this has already been brought up but why couldn't they just play out the tournament. It seems they assumed someone was still alive in the tournament who participated in the chipgate but what if they were all busted?

I think if they just let the final 27 players play that would've caused less of an issue.

What $$ were they going to use to payout the final 27? Their prize money was used to pay all the refunded players.

not even 1/3 should be happy since there was an even chop. 53k vs. 19k. more of a reason all 27 should band together. hopefully justice prevails.

So everyone has gotten their checks? My friend 2 miles down the road got his... And mine still isn't here. Apparently I called and they had the wrong address last week and I told them to change it and who knows if they actually did.

What a mess. They suck.

Is everyone that boycotts the Borgata boycotting all MGM properties? (Borgata is half owned by MGM.)

Boycotting Bellagio and Aria too?

It's doubtful that both of them will boycott MGM.

I think most of the posters here really do not understand the gaming industry and have some seriously unrealistic expectations.

1). The Borgata is the biggest loser by far. Lost a quarter million in rake, at least the same amount in investigative/regulatory costs, and took a big hit to their reputation. They ordered(?) a new chipset too. Total damage is probably well north of a million. Saying that another million is a drop in the bucket is true from a property standpoint, but a massive hit from a poker room standpoint.

2) The players overall received a higher amount of the prize pool back than they otherwise would have.

3) The biggest argument is that Borgata was negligent and should have stopped the tournament sooner. If that had happened before the payouts, the distribution probably would have been very similar. So the damage is that they gave 27 players false hope. Obviously those players feel entitled to more, and I think the Borgata should reach out to them, but the total compensation added should probably be a small fraction of what their ICM was.

I don't really think handing out a million to 27 people will get you a million in goodwill. It does suck for the people at the top, however.

"both of them"..lol.....harsh but in the end close to the truth

Yeah they ordered a new chipset. Because the old one was dogchit and one of the main reasons Lusardi chose the Borgata as his venue of choice. Thus one of the reasons why this whole incident happened.

It's not "handing out a million" to the Final 27. It's letting them keep what was already theirs.

They took nearly a million from the people at the top, added it to their own ~$250k, and made a bunch of full refunds to people who were barely impacted. To my mind it isn't about demanding the casino pay a bunch more out of pocket, as I don't think they would. It is that they spent money from the equity remaining people in the tournament to reward as many people as possible. If everyone who was deemed impacted got the same % of their equity returned, it would have been more fair.

As you say, the biggest PR help was made. Paid mostly out the pockets of the final 27.

The Borgata didn't spend the money, or decide to refund the players in a bad way. The DGE decided how to distribute the prize pool. The idea that the Borgata should pay another million because of a player-unfriendly ruling is wrong. Also, the idea that this ruling benefits Borgata is wrong too. IMO this is the worst possible ruling for the Borgata that doesn't involve them paying extra funds, as I'm sure they would have much preferred to pay ICM to 27 and partial refunds to those affected.

Gaming is most concerned with fairness and protecting the image and reputation of NJ gaming. Is this the most fair outcome? Probably not. It definitely makes the most people happy, however, and I think the decision between different rulings is closer than you think.

FWIW, the DGE is a POS, given all the patron abuse it has failed to act on as well as fradulent promotions it failed to investigate, but that's an entirely different story.

I'm with you in thinking that it would be bad for the long term of poker for the Borg to have to pay 7 figures beyond their rake. I don't think I mentioned that I thought the Borgata was at fault here. In that I don't know what went in to the decision and who had a seat at the table and/or influence on the final ruling, it is hard to know for sure. It came from the DGE, so the simple answer seems them.

I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, but IMO the final 27 got screwed over most of all. It does bring up the cost of outing a cheater for a player deep in a tournament -- a ruling that makes it hugely -EV to speak up has to be wrong.

Some points and an observation.

1. A result of this whole debacle maybe should be that no prizes be released until a tournament is completed. Without the cash payouts that were already paid in this case, this whole settlement may have been very different.

2. There probably needs to be a certain level of self-policing that the players are responsible for. This would reduce the impact of poor/new dealers and floor people that are stretched too thin. If something is out of line and is spotted by a player, it should be called out. If it isn't handled at that point by the floor person in a manner that satisfies the player, there should be a way to lodge a protest.

3. Because of the nature of poker tournaments, some protests that are beyond the level of an individual hand and could affect the outcome of the tournament would require a mandatory play stoppage until the issue was worked out. To let the game go on as a serious infraction is being reviewed results in the kind of mess we see here.

4. There could be penalties imposed on the protesting player if the protest results in a game stoppage and is found to be baseless and/or frivolous.

5. If a given infraction is seen as affecting the overall integrity of the tournament (as in this case) the game should be cancelled as all monies returned.

I know some of this is tight-assed and is not at all in keeping with the "outlaw" vision gamblers like to have of themselves and the games, but we are talking about serious money.

It's not old Vegas or the wild West anymore where stepping out of line was dealt with in a less polite fashion than today.

Lawyers, lawsuits, petitions, boycotts......yet seeing yourselves as gamblers living on the edge, in charge of your own destiny, free from many of the constraints of modern society is somewhat of a paradox. I don't think you can have it both ways.

In addition to the added security and oversight that the casinos are adding to the way the tournaments are handled, I think we need to become more professional in the way we approach the whole game and take on a level of responsibility that is reflective of the sums of money involved.

the DGE and the borgata got together to make this resolution.

well the 2 leads i thought i was going to get for legal counsel didnt pan out..

I was not aware that Borgata and MGM were connected.

Now that I know this, I will speak to to some of the higher placed people at Aria about this issue.

I doubt that they can do anything about a New Jersey decision in Nevada, but I am sufficiently motivated by the unfairness of this decision to pursue the issue further.

I believe the correct course of action is for the involved parties to appeal to the DGE, which will get you a hearing. After the hearing if you are unsuccessful you can appeal again and have a jury(?) trial. The entire process can take multiple years, however, there is at least some chance of relief.

Your best bet is to find a well known gaming lawyer who will take it on contingency. If the lawyer is not willing to take it on contingency given the amount of money at stake you should think long and hard before proceeding.

Borgata is half boyd and half mgm, but to the best of my knowledge ran on it's own.