Suit against Gaming Control Board is dismissed

Friday, Jan. 28, 2005 | 10:59 a.m.

The state Gaming Control Board and its members have been dismissed as defendants in a lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles gambler.

Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez on Wednesday ordered the board and members Dennis Neilander, Bobby Siller and Scott Scherer removed from the suit filed in October by John Allen, a Los Angeles attorney.

The suit, which also named the Eldorado Hotel & Casino in Reno, Bally Gaming Inc., and MindPlay LLC as defendants, alleges that the MindPlay card monitoring system distributed by Bally Gaming gives casinos an unfair edge over players.

Allen's suit accused the Eldorado of reshuffling during blackjack games whenever the MindPlay system indicated players held an edge based on the sequence of cards distributed in the deal.

Las Vegas attorney Robert Nersesian, who is representing Allen and who has handled several gamblers' cases against casinos, said he hasn't determined yet what he will do next in the Allen case. He said Allen could pursue the case against the casino and the MindPlay distribution or he could pursue an appeal on the dismissal of the state from the case.

"I haven't reached a conclusion yet," Nersesian said Thursday. "It's incredible that devices that keep track of cards played aren't prohibited. My client would be happy if the Gaming Control Board just followed the statutes and said it was an illegal device and get it the hell off your casino floor."

MindPlay has been marketed by Bally Gaming as a system that gives pit bosses a real-time snapshot of the game by tracking wagers as well as each card dealt and played. The software works with optical scanning devices set into the table as well as coded playing cards.

The software can alert casinos to potential card counting by identifying betting patterns, a strategy that has drawn some fire from professional blackjack players.

Bally Gaming officials have said the technology can benefit players by helping casinos more accurately track wagers -- information that is used to grant complementary rooms, food and drinks to bettors.

In the state's filing for the dismissal, attorneys argued that there is nothing in regulations that enables Allen to sue and that Allen had not exhausted all potential remedies in his dispute with the Eldorado. The filing also said regulations "do not automatically prohibit the MindPlay device."

Nersesian disagrees. He said statutes clearly ban any device that assists in projecting the outcome of a game, keeping track of cards played, analyzing probability or strategy for playing or betting, and that includes casinos as well as patrons.

"The Control Board said the statute applies to patrons," he said. "But it doesn't say patrons, it says 'persons.' "