Marina District Development Co., LLC v. Ivey
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
2016 WL 6138239 (Oct. 21, 2016)
Ivey and Sun (defendants) requested special baccarat accommodations from the Borgata (plaintiff) — a private table, dealer, and specific cards — falsely claiming superstition as the reason, when their actual purpose was "edge sorting": exploiting subtle manufacturing asymmetries on the cards' backs (which the casino dealer, believing it was superstition, turned as requested) to identify favorable cards and substantially increase their odds of winning, in violation of the New Jersey Casino Control Act's (CCA) ban on playing baccarat with marked cards. The Borgata sued for breach of contract (violating the CCA's implied terms) and fraud (misrepresenting their true purpose); both parties moved for summary judgment.
Whether a party's misrepresentation is material if the other party would have taken the same course of action if the misrepresenting party had made no representation at all.