In a Golden Nugget  baccarat lawsuit based on events from April 2012, the playing cards - issued by the same manufacturer as in the Phil Ivey saga that has concluded for now - were not randomly shuffled before being shipped to Atlantic City. The 14 players noticed this, and won more than 40 consecutive hands before the games were suspended.

A Superior Court ruling five months later sided with the players - and casino owner Tilman Fertitta dramatically overruled his own attorneys and announced he would refund the remaining $1 million that the players had not yet collected.

Well, there was one catch: the players in return had to drop their lawsuits regarding damages for being detained by Golden Nugget employees after the big score. Some said they were detained for up to eight hours with no food or water because of discrimination (the players are of Asian descent).

So the players refused the deal - basically gambling that they would receive more than the $1.5M total.

In June 2014, a judge sided with Golden Nugget.

Then in Sept. 2014, the state Division of Gaming Enforcement issued a non-binding opinion that the games were legitimate and that therefore the players were entitled to the money after all.

That seemed to bode very well for the players, right? Well, Golden Nugget soldiered on, having been rebuffed in the settlement talks.

Then in February 2015, a judge ruled that regardless of the DGE finding, the players had to return the rest of their money.

The players appealed, but the judge reaffirmed the ruling two months later.

So unless the players can prove their discrimination lawsuit to great effect in court, it appears they gambled and lost - and lost big.

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