Punters overturn Star ban

TWO punters have overturned their bans on entering Queensland’s biggest casinos, which claimed that the pair effectively engaged in the same dishonest conduct as poker great Phil Ivey.

Mark Timothy Grant and Nathan Trent Anderson were both banned from The Star Gold Coast and Treasury Brisbane Casinos in March 2018 after playing Pontoon on consecutive days at the Gold Coast casino.

The Star banned the men for allegedly colluding in a practice known as “edge-sorting”, which Star alleged was dishonest and gave them an advantage the casino was unaware of.

The men appealed their bans to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which found that they were wrongly accused of dishonesty.

The tribunal heard the men, who are friends, were seated at the same Pontoon table on February 18 and February 19.

Star conducted a review of their table play and alleged the pair were using signals to communicate tactics. Critically, Star identified manufacture abnormalities on the sides of some cards, the tribunal heard.

Star alleged Mr Grant was using edge-sorting in order to inform the signals he provided to Mr Anderson, such as “hit”, “split”, “double” or “stand” during play.

Edge-sorting involves a player exploiting to their advantage tiny differences on the edge of cards due to the manufacturing process.

The most high-profile case of edge-sorting involved professional poker player Phil Ivey, who was found to have cheated by using edge-sorting while playing a variant of baccarat at London’s Crockford Club, the tribunal heard.

Mr Grant admitted advising Mr Anderson on strategy through the use of hand signals and verbal communication, but this was common in Pontoon. He denied edge-sorting because the players did not touch the cards as was necessary to constitute edge-sorting.