You Have To Side With The Gamblers

From the Las Vegas Sun:  Gamblers who have been ordered to return $1.5 million they won at an Atlantic City casino that unknowingly used unshuffled cards asked a judge on Friday to let them keep the money.

The 14 gamblers say they won the money through no fault of their own playing mini-baccarat at the Golden Nugget in April 2012. They say that if the ruling stands, it would send a chilling message to the gambling public that no jackpot is ever safe.

"By ordering the patrons to return the monies that were paid out by (the Golden Nugget) nearly three years after the game ended sends incredible conditional messages to the public: A win isn't necessarily a win, and that casinos will go after winning players who are without fault" if the casino or one of its agents were to blame, the gamblers said in a court filing asking the judge to reverse her February ruling in favor of the casino.
Steve Scheinthal, general counsel for the casino's parent company, Landry's Inc., said the judge got it right.
"The trial judge considered the law and made a very thoughtful and correct decision," he told The Associated Press. "We see no reason why she would change her mind."
The judge heard the motion Friday but did not issue a decision.
At issue were games of mini-baccarat using decks of cards the casino had paid a manufacturer to pre-shuffle but that hadn't been shuffled. Once players realized the pattern in which the cards were emerging, they drastically upped their bets from $10 a hand to $5,000 and won 41 straight hands.
Last month, the judge determined the games were illegal under state law because they didn't conform to gambling regulations specifying the way each game must be played.  http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2015/mar/20/gamblers-ask-judge-let-them-keep-15-million-unshuf/
If you honestly play a gambling game and if, later the house/casino says the gamer was dishonest, who should pay for the mistake?
In my opinion, it should be the casino who should take the loss.  It was their employee who screwed up, not the gamblers.
The casinos have cameras everywhere.  If the dealer didn't notice, then the pit boss should have.  And if the pit boss didn't see it, then the eyes in the sky, the casino security, should have noticed something was amiss, along with the shift supervisor and casino boss on the shift.
Once the gamblers cashed in their chips, they should have been immune from any kind of lawsuit by the casinos to get their money back.
So, hopefully, the casinos will lose and the gamblers will win.