Phil Ivey and the Borgata Casino have been in a legal battle for quite a while now, ever since the legendary poker player cheated in the game of baccarat in the casino. The tides changed for the past couple of years, and the latest news announced that Borgata was winning big time as all Ivey’s poker winnings in Nevada during the World Series Of Poker were legally seized by the casino.
In other words, the casino was doing pretty good in the legal battle, and it seemed that Ivey was on the verge of giving up and actually returning the $10 million that the court in New Jersey decided he owed to the casino.
However, the latest legal proceedings brought about a slightly different scenario, and Borgata is not as powerful as it seemed before in the case. One of the things that Ivey’s lawyers did was assert that the winnings from the World Series of Poker were unlawfully garnished by the casino.
The second thing that affected Borgata’s progress was the fact that the gaming bureaucracy of the state of New Jersey was unable to make any meaningful support for either side, creating a good overture for everything that followed after that.
Right after the WSOP wrapped up, Borgata served notice to the WSOP, stating that Ivey cannot be paid out anything he won in the tournament. Ivey took part in $50,000 Poker Players Championship, but he eventually gave up taking part in other WSOP events as he found out that Borgata was seizing his winnings.
Nevertheless, he ended up seventh in PPC and won $124,410. He did not see a single cent of that prize, as Borgata was quick to act. In fact, the check is right now in a sort of a legal limbo, currently owned by the US Marshals. Things will remain that way as long as there are legal complications in this case.
Ivey Strikes Back
Ivey’s side is not giving up on the case, though. Their first claim is that most of the money that Ivey won belonged to other parties — mainly Dan Cates and Illya Trincher.
However, Ivey’s lawyers went a step further and addressed Borgata’s lawyer, Jeremy Klausner. They claim that he actually did not follow the proper writ of execution when seizing Ivey’s prize money as he doesn’t have a license to operate in the state of Nevada. Allegedly, he had to find a local licensed counsel partner in Nevada in order to be able to proceed with his actions.
What Ivey’s lawyers now require is that the entire action is reversed as they say that the fund freezing was unlawful.
And while the Nevada money is being inspected, both sides had their say in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Last week, lawyers of both Borgata and Ivey fired their legal bullets at each other. However, at this point, what they discussed and what happened in court is not available to the public. Nevertheless, details will probably become available very soon!
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