I am posting this video to give the full and honest truth about how easily this happened to me at Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore and to warn other players who might consider trying to play blackjack well. I also made this video to correct some of the inaccuracies quoted in the Baltimore Sun article.



Below is the full and complete timeline of events between myself, Horseshoe Baltimore, Caesar's, and the Maryland Gaming Authority. I believe in honesty and transparency and I wish Caesar's would practice these same values. I feel this issue should have been easy to resolve.

Timeline of Events Between Joseph Stiers and Horseshoe Baltimore Casino

5/27/2014 - 7/14/2014: I am playing in Las Vegas for World Series of Poker (WSOP).

8/2014: Horseshoe Baltimore opens its doors.

9/17/2014: I stop by Horseshoe, Baltimore for the first time on my drive back from playing a World Poker Tour Event in Atlantic City and make $8700 at blackjack, playing for less than 30 minutes.

9/30/2014: A friend of mine wants to go to Horseshoe so I return and lose $9800 playing blackjack. The poker games aren't very good and I decide I'm probably not going to return.

11/2014: I start receiving large cash offers from Horseshoe to return and play at the casino in my mail and email. The first booklet is $270 in match play offers every 6 days of the month of November. Additional bonus offers accrue for showing up on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I ignore those offers and the offers increase the next month to $475 each for the month of December.

12/12/2014: I return to Horseshoe to start playing the free $475 match plays. Since I am home for the holidays anyways, I stop by on 12/12, 12/13, 12/18, and 12/19 to play my free plays. I lose over $5000 at blackjack and I never play for more than about an hour.

12/19/2014: First incident at Horseshoe: I show up around 2 pm and play a $475 match play on the "first 12" bet on roulette. It spins the number 10 and I win, but they tell me they cannot pay me out because the match play is only valid on even money bets. In the fine print on the back of the coupon it does state this so I don't argue. They did allow me to bet it and waited until after I won to not pay it out, though. The Maryland Regulation Site specifically states that the "first 12" is a valid bet for match play coupons. I am not sure if this means that is an illegal coupon or not, but either way they shouldn't allow me to use it and wait until I win to tell me it's an invalid bet.

I moved on to the blackjack tables and then to a different roulette table where I had the first real encounter with the floor people at Horseshoe telling me that I had to leave. They refused to tell me why, but did not say that I was not allowed back. I gave a manager named Hong my email and phone number to get back to me about what was going on and he never did. I followed up with the Maryland Gaming Authority.

12/27/2014: Major incident: I return to Horseshoe around 1 pm because I heard they have a pretty good poker tournament on Saturdays. First I go to the promotions booth where they invited me to show up on that specific day and receive $180 in free Best Buy Gift cards. I received the gift cards upon showing them my Total Rewards Player Card and went upstairs and bought into the poker tournament for $350. I received an alternate seat, which meant I had to wait for someone else to get knocked out to play so I played blackjack for 10 minutes without any problems and made $550. I came back to the poker room and my seat was available. I played for a little over an hour and was doing pretty well when randomly 3 guys in suits showed up and told me I had to leave the casino. I told them I was in the middle of the tournament, which I paid for and I had chips. One of the guys responded, "These are my chips" and took them. They didn't offer me a refund for the buy in, which would have still been worth far less than my chip value at the time. I refused to leave because they were stealing from me and I had every right to the seat I paid for. They brought in a security guy, Darren Griffin, who tried to physically push me out of the room. I resisted being forcefully pushed from the seat I paid for, but made sure not to put my hands on him. He kept trying to push me out of the room so I lost my balance and fell down twice. That seemed to get him to stop assaulting me so I returned to my poker seat and waited for the police. Again, no one at the casino would tell me any reason why I was being asked to leave. Darrin Griffin took over the operation with the police and made statements that I know are false. First he said that I had already been told I could not come back to Horseshoe, which isn't true. I was never told not to return when I was asked to leave on 12/19. They didn't even seem to have any idea why they were kicking me out on 12/19. He also said that Horseshoe was banning me from all Caesar's properties, including Atlantic City and Las Vegas. I thought he had no authority to do this, especially since it's not legal in New Jersey to bar people for no reason.

1/4/2014: I returned to Horseshoe because they sent me another booklet of new offers for the month of January. This led me to believe the previous incident was an egregious error and they wouldn't offer me $470 to show up if they wanted me banned. They lowered my match play by $5 from $475 to $470, which seemed strange, since $5 is irrelevant. This wasn't making sense and I figured I would give it another shot and stay entirely away from blackjack, since I am somewhat confident the issue is they think I am a card counter. I play craps with my match play for about 25 minutes and leave without a problem.

1/9/2015: Criminal Trespassing Charge: A friend of mine invites me to go to Horseshoe to play craps. Once again I have a match play invite for the date offering $470. We find a craps table and play for 5 minutes and do very poorly. I give them my comp card alerting them I am there. They have no issues taking my money. I lose $700 and my friend loses $440. We go to the diamond lounge to grab a beer and relax. Police officers and security ambush me in the diamond lounge and take me to a security room.

In the security room, Horseshoe finally and for the first time, tried to address why I was banned, but it felt like they were just making up nonsense. First they said that I was drunk on 12/23 and falling on the floor making a scene. I told them I had no drinks and Darren Griffin had pushed me to the floor and I requested those tapes be preserved. Then the Horseshoe people reconvened somewhere else while I sat with the police. Horseshoe personnel came back and told me I had been barred from all Caesar's properties when I was at the Linq in Las Vegas in July, which isn't true at all. It is important to note that Horseshoe had no information about the Linq until this very day, 1/9, when they obtained my license without my permission from the Baltimore police and Horseshoe scanned for prior incidents. I am fairly certain that giving my drivers license to Horseshoe personnel without my permission is illegal. Equally important, on July 14th I was banned from the Linq and only the Linq for playing 6-5 blackjack with a known card counter. The general manager invited me back the next night and offered to pay for drinks and explain it; I couldn't make it because I had day 2 of the Wynn main event, but I had no problems playing and staying at Caesars properties since then. Finally, since the reasons given were clearly untrue, Horseshoe returned to their original stance that they do not have to provide a reason for barring me. I was then escorted to my car by police and security and given a trespassing citation.

1/21/2015: Maryland Gaming Control Agency ordered Horseshoe to refund my money from the tournament I was kicked out of on 12/27/2014. The Commission pointed out in their email that they were requesting the refund because it was clear I hadn't broken any rules or done anything wrong. At this point they declared my case closed and their job complete. They failed to address the issue of the match play on 12/19/2014 where the casino let me bet it on "first 12" of roulette and waited for me to win to decide it was not allowed on that bet. I think this highlights my point that the MLGCA will not interpret anything more than the obvious, since allowing an illegal bet and only declaring it illegal after the player wins is just another form of stealing. They also determined that my being barred from Horseshoe Baltimore without any valid explanation was not the Gamin Control Agency’s responsibility.

2/9/2015: I return home from an east coast poker trip for a WPT and CPPT event and I receive the check from Horseshoe and another booklet of offers. At this point I thought the situation was resolved, but luckily I did not try to return to Horseshoe. I logged onto totalrewards.com to look at rates for the WSOP in June and discovered my card was player restricted. I made numerous phone calls and learned that Horseshoe had barred me from playing at all properties, which includes registering to WSOP events. I called Horseshoe in an attempt to resolve and explain what happened. I spoke with Christine Farley who took down notes on my story and assured me I would get a call back from her or Chad Barnhill within two days.

2/11-2/13/2015: I call 3 times a day trying to get in contact with Chad Barnhill and Christine Farley, but my calls are sent to voice mails and all of my voice mails are ignored. Finally, on 2/13 my mom calls and gets through to Christine and then to Alex Dixon. He informs my mom that they are discussing my case and reviewing their policies and procedures and will inform me on Wednesday 2/18 of their decision on whether my playing status will be restored at all properties, all Caesar's properties except Horseshoe Baltimore, or remain banned at all Caesar's properties.

2/18/2015: I receive an email from Alex Dixon informing me that Horseshoe and Caesar's management has made the decision to ban me from All Caesar’s Properties. There is still no explanation for why I am being evicted. I receive a "courtesy call" from Alex Dixon informing me of the decision as well. He refuses to offer any substantial reason why I was barred other than a management decision.

2/19/2015: I receive a phone call from Stephanie Appiah; she claims it is in response to my complaint with Caesar's Corporate and tells me she will reinvestigate to ensure that the original review was handled fairly. I send her this timeline.

2/21/2015: I discover that Stephanie actually works for Horseshoe, Baltimore under the same managers that made this original decision. I try to politely inquire about the organizational structure of the investigation and get no reply.

2/23/2015: I again politely try to inquire about the organizational structure and offer to discuss the situation with the people involved and get no reply.

2/24/2015: I receive an email from Stephanie informing me that Horseshoe stands by its original decision. I am still completely in the dark as to why they have done this.

2/26/2015: The WSOP event begins at Horseshoe Baltimore and I am forced to miss the event and miss the opportunity to compete in the 2015 leaderboard standing and represent myself in my home state. I call a close friend and professional poker player to see if he can help. My friend tells me that he has two close friends who had this happen years ago in Las Vegas and that Caesar’s won’t bother you if you merely play the poker events and stay away from playing blackjack or using the mailed matchplay offers. He additionally informs me that casinos cannot trespass you without first asking you to leave if you have an offer inviting you.

2/27/2015: I decide to try what my friend suggested and register for the WSOP event on 2/27. I figure if they don’t let me join, I will just leave and go home. To my surprise, they allow me to buy in to the tournament even though it requires my player card, which alerts them of who I am. I sit in my seat to begin play and a manager pulls me aside and tells me that I know I am not allowed to play here and asks what I am doing here. I tell him about my conversation with my friend and politely agree to leave. He says, “okay I’ll get you a refund so you can get out of here,” He asks for my license to get the refund and I comply. Then he leaves me in a chair and gives it to security who in turn gives it to Darrin Griffin, who in turn calls the police and makes me wait to receive a trespassing violation. I am completely harassed by Griffin and the officer and remain polite the entire time.

At one point the officer says, “You had better show up on the court date or else your family will find out you’re doing this and they will stop supporting you.” I reply, “huh, my family knows what is going on.” She replies, “Well if your parents find out about this, they going to stop supporting you and you’re going to have to find a job” This is about the 4th time the officer and/or Darrin Griffin has harassed me about needing to find a job without knowing anything about me. For what it’s worth, I keep perfect accounting records, own my own condo, declared over $200,000 in earning this past tax year and support myself entirely through poker. They are treating me with extreme prejudice without knowing anything about me. I would also like to point out that both times I interacted with security supervisor Darrin Griffin, he stated that I was barred in all properties in the country. He specifically stated New Jersey, which state law prohibits them from barring me in. I have played in New Jersey without a problem, but this shows how it is hard to trust what he actually has authority over when it comes to trespass violations, since he makes claims that contradict other state laws.

In any event, it seems odd and wrong that a casino in the State of Maryland should have the power-or think it has the power-- to bar citizens from playing in its own casino and other casinos within its corporate family in other states—casinos in no other states have such power.

This is not possible. No CET property has ever or will ever say "No BJ here, but feel free to play BJ at our other properties". I think you should elaborate on what happened at the Linq and what exactly was said to you. If I had to guess, your friend was hole carding and CET decided you were guilty by association.

The Uston v Resorts in NJ only applied to banning someone for being a skilled player. It doesn't sound like that is why you are banned.

I think bpb may be onto something. If you truly feel you are innocent then I would appeal to NGCB. If you did something at Linq that night, or your friend did, you're better off taking your lump and moving on.

Are you banned from WSOP.com?

I'm also suspicious about the Linq story for the reason called out above and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would knowingly/willingly play 6-5 blackjack (something else was going on)

Seems like both parties are at fault. Them more egregious but no idea why you thought it was a good idea to keep showing up there.

Casino are not public, they're private property. They have the exact same right to bar someone from entry as you do from barring someone from entering your home. You (and they) don't need to provide a reason. Any arbitrary reason is okay. One casino refuses entry to people with tattoos.

One second with google leads you to this:

Under Maryland law it is perfectly legal for property owners to impose, long term and even lifetime bans on private property. In order to impose these bans, a property owner need only to notify the person whom they are seeking to keep out. Police officers typically act as agents for the property owners and have the power to issue written no trespass warnings that serve as proper notice. If a person is found in violation of a no trespass warning, they could face a misdemeanor criminal charge with a maximum jail sentence of 90 days.

Whether you think it's odd or wrong the criminal justice system enforces the law they don't write it.

You should have expected to end up in jail since you purposely broke the law.

Ya, I watched the video and read your account and was left feeling like there is something missing from the story. A few of the accounts don't seem to add up. You've admitted that you were counting cards, and it appears that you got caught. Are you sure they didn't permaban you when you were they first approached you? I dont know what the rules are, if they are allowed to do that or not, but it seems like based on the events that happened after, that they ( at least in their minds) had banned you from the premises. Also, can you elaborate on what happened at the Linq? What was your friend accused of?

It's hard because yea, things can be missing or else I'm just writing a book. I felt like the Linq was really irrelevant because I played and stayed at so many Caesar's Properties after and there were no issues and I was kinda barred by association but here you go-
Linq Story:

I had a friend who stayed with me the previous series in 2013. He was an online SNG poker player that wasn't really that great at tournies or cash games. We managed to make a lot of money playing the texas holdem bot, though. On occasion, we would play one shoe of blackjack and I would count and he would follow my bets. I actually learned to count in 2009, but I did terrible and didn't go near a blackjack table until 2013. We were mostly playing for fun max betting at $300, my counting was okay, but my indexes were pretty rusty. I didn't see it as a real way of making money and casinos never bothered me about playing. We ran really well playing together and for whatever reason my friend became very interested in card counting. He downloaded casino verite and practiced and learned everything better than I ever knew.

When we returned to Vegas the next summer he decided he was going to be a blackjack pro (the bot had gotten a lot tougher). All of our group of friends were online poker players and none of has much concept of heat in the casino. He was scaling $50-$800 and sometimes in hi limit 2 hands of $100-$1000. He quickly got free suites then quickly got barred everywhere on the strip and even downtown. Just by playing with him, two of my poker friends got barred from the cosmo and a girl who had never played in a casino before and didn't know the rules to blackjack got barred from the Tropicana. I was too busy playing WSOP, Venetian, and other tournaments to take part in any of this.

On July 13th I had my first day off for the entire series. I played day1a of the $1600 Wynn series main event and had my first day off of the summer on July 14th. My friend was pretty burnt out from the blackjack experiment getting banned everywhere and we just wanted to chill out somewhere and grab a drink, but not like a club or anything crazy since I had day2 in the morning.

We decided that O'Sheas was the perfect spot, it's more like a bar than a casino and no-one will bother to bar him from a place with only 6-5 tables. We got our first drink at the bar but it was so crowded it took forever so we sat at a $5 6-5 table to get free drinks and relax. We were scaling $5-$100 at 6-5 which requires a tc of 7 to be profitable I think. We got the $100 bet in there to close out our third shoe and then the suits came over and kicked us out. I was outside the doors asking for a reason when the "general manager of the property" came out. He was really nice and said it was a busy night and if we wanted to come back tomorrow he could buy us drinks and explain it. I had day2 of the wynn main so I couldn't. When I say I was barred from the Linq and only the Linq I say that because they never mentioned other properties it was a bunch of security guys where yellow uniforms reading some 86 stuff. Then the manager comes out and is super nice and invites us back the next night. This is really how it happened..

You kept going back after they repeatedly told you to leave.

Frankly I'm not surprised they banned you from all their properties.

The MatchPlay thing doesn't matter, that was obviously sent by the marketting dept. Annoying of course, but has no real bearing on you being banned.

To elaborate further, the reason I felt fairly certain that the Linq was irrelevant was it was pretty clear they didn't know about it until they scanned my driver's license on 1/9/2015. It couldn't have been on my tr card because I was staying and playing using it and getting all these offers from July-December. They took the license went away for awhile came back and suddenly they are talking about the Linq and all but on 12/19, 12/27 they simply don't want my business. For all of November they want my business so bad they keep increasing my match plays? That's why I'm out here providing all the information I have but some of this stuff is still a mystery to me because they won't talk about it.

IMO you overplayed your hand with the casino. But kudos on your timeline - well written.

Did we really need another thread about this?

You were told this on 12/27 and then went back on 1/9 only to be escorted out by security and police and given a trespassing citation.

Then on 2/18 you were informed that Caesars stands by it's decision to ban you from all properties and what do you do?



Do you know what banned means? Do you need Obama to tell you that you aren't welcome on their properties anymore?




Whatever chance you had of having this overturned you completely ****ed up by going back on numerous occasions after being told not to. GG OP

I didn't think it was possible to get kicked out of O'Sheas. Good job.

I recommend you try to get ahold of Attorney Bob Nersesian.

While I'm sure there is more to the story, there are folks in this thread making silly claims.

- Being told you can't play blackjack at a property or even being told to leave doesn't constitute a "trespass" from all properties in that chain. In fact, there is even some legal opinions that because of the way Caesar's is structured and different entities own each casino, one casino can't actually legally trespass you from another casino in that chain.

- Physically assaulting a player is illegal. Back-rooming a player is often illegal, it depends on the circumstances. You likely have grounds for a lawsuit.

- There is no reason a police officer should share your private information with a casino. Likely illegal and also grounds for suit.

- Being invited to the property to play via the coupons should negate the trespass. The property is asking you to return, they can't do that and then arrest you for taking them up on the offer.

Of course there might be a lot more to the story, but if your account of events is accurate, you should be able to get a settlement out of them.

CET has treated a lot of players badly in NJ, so nothing in your account is surprising. That said, if it was so important for you to be able to continue playing WSOP events you exercised very poor judgement in repeatedly getting yourself into trouble with CET. You should have handled things better before they spun out of control.

lol, that's just not how it works. Why do you think this is okay? When you're told to leave an establishment, even if they're completely in the wrong, you have to leave. Refusing is trespassing. If they're screwing you over, take it up with the police once you're off property.

I don't think it gives them carte blanche to physically assault him, though. If he was calculatedly trying to antagonize them into breaking the law in ways that let him sue and extract a settlement, he may have played it pretty well.

Try this.... Go back to baltimore shoe, only this time just play slot machines. A friend of mine I met in a poker room once went through this exact same thing, and he says its ok to go back as long as you just play slots...

Hmm. I have no idea about US law in this regard, and am generally extremely non-confrontational, but I'm thinking that if I felt I was being stolen from, I'd be pretty reluctant to leave until the police arrived. I buy something, business takes it from me and says I have to leave - would it not be wisest to wait for the police to arrive and let them sort it out?

Cliff's: CET are arrogant pricks, but you seem kinda green to how this all works. You're spreading $5-$100, what did you honestly think was going to happen?

Here's one thing I can add that might save you a trainwreck down the road: once you are barred from a property (or the CET family of properties), casinos are not obligated to pay you out any winnings (nor refund any wagered amounts) resulting from bets that you weren't allowed to place (on account of having been banned, or self-excluded, etc). AKA they're freerolling you. Even if you register for the Main without any heat, have fun pleading your case when you FT it only to be told you're not getting a dime or your $10K back.

(p.s. try PM'ing Bill Rini? He may at least be able to escalate this matter in a reasonable manner even if it still may not work out for you; maybe you'll be able to get a pass to play in WSOP events or something.)

EDIT: I see a lot of replies suggesting you go back and just steer clear of certain games. That's begging for trouble. Like I wrote: they're freerolling you (legally). Don't be an idiot -- you need to get off their 86 list before setting foot in one of their properties again. Look into what the procedure is for that (if there is one.)

I think op really pushed his luck. I mean why do you keep playing blackjack when you are getting this kind of reaction from management. I probably know the reason, the degen inside him couldn't not play and now his poker career will suffer unfortunately. Glad he got refunded for confiscated funds though.

I can't see that happening. That would be the worst press ever...the public would be scared of not getting paid. It would discourage new players from playing the WSOP, imo.

It sounds like there was a miscommunication on the night of 12/19. In the video you state "he says give me your number and we'll get back to you about what happens". Then you basically get kicked out very quickly next time (roughly as quickly as it takes for them to notice you were in the casino). To me it sounds like you got banned on 12/19 and the "what happens" to establish the duration of the ban. They were in no rush to quickly give you the time frame, because it wasn't that important to them to get you back in right away and the ban was probably going to last awhile. It'd be nice if they made that clearer, so that was probably partly their fault. It was also partly your fault for assuming it was just a 1 day ban. I think if you get kicked out of an establishment with a line like "we don't want your business", you should inquire "for the rest of the night?" and they would have said "until we say we want your business again."

The stuff before 12/19 could be summarized as "counted cards repeatedly in short amount of time". I would not ever mention the "first 12" roulette bet problem again. I agree it's a minor scam they allowed you to bet it, but it was from a freeplay and it stated it on the coupon the rules. To me this a total side issue that is basically an annoying unrelated thing that happened that you should just let go as their are bigger fish to fry (getting to hopefully be allowed to play at the casinos again), so don't pester them about the equity of a freeplay bet you made.

The rest of the stuff happening after 12/19 was just you violating their ban that you didn't realize you had. It really hurt your case for possible reinstatement on 12/27 that you made the cops show up in order for you to leave the casino, although I understand not wanting to leave a casino in the middle of a poker tournament. Security doesn't see eye to eye with poker players about the EV of tournament chips. When security asks you to leave, you're going to have to leave though. Not complying quickly and courteously with security is asking for trouble, IMO. I think on 12/27, if you quickly and courteously complied with security, and then politely asked them for a refund in private, they probably would have granted you one. When you force their hand to call the cops, they're not going to bend over backwards to do something for you even if you're probably entitled to it.

I doubt it. I think most of the general public would read "guy that is not allowed in the casino wins jackpot, doesn't get to keep jackpot" and would think "hmmm I guess if I'm not allowed into the casino, it makes no sense to go there, since I won't be able to keep my winnings anyways and might end up with criminal charges."

eg... look at this story: Gambling underage not worth risk after 20-year-old's jackpot forfeited at casino