Maryland Live! Card Counter Civil Judgment

In 2014, Justin Mills, a 23 year old card counter, was invited by Maryland Live! Casino Resort to play at their establishment. They even provided limo transportation.

However the night quickly turned sour when Mills, accused only of counting cards, was physically detained by casino security and forced into a back hallway. When Mills refused to hand over his ID to security personnel and asked to leave, security continued to detain him and called the Anne Arundel County Police.

Officer Douglas Bilter and Officer Kyle Shapelow, who are also employed by the casino as security, were the responding officers. When they arrived, the officers incorrectly informed Mills that card counting was in fact illegal, and he was required to provide ID to the casino or he would be arrested. Instead of facing arrest, Mills complied and handed over his identification. He was trespassed, refused the right to cash out his chips, and left stranded outside the casino as his host obviously wasn't going to provide a limo back home.

Here's the video of security physically detaining Mills.

And here the video, with audio, of the backroom and police interaction.

Just last month, in a scathing opinion by the Maryland District Court, Maryland Live was found to have in fact falsely imprisoned Mills, and he will be awarded a civil judgment with the amount to be determined by a Jury.

The court also decided that Officer Douglas Bilter and Officer Kyle Shapelow may be held liable for violating Mill's constitutional rights, as they "had abandoned any investigative or law enforcement purpose and were acting for the casino's private purposes only", which was compounded by the fact that the casino is their secondary employer.

Additionally the civil claims of assault and negligence against Maryland Live and security personnel will be allowed to continue to a Jury Trial, which is scheduled for September 5th 2017.

The full decision by the District Court can be found here.

Congratulations to Justin as well as Bob Nersesian and his team for the initial summary judgment for false imprisonment. I hope justice continues to be served with the conclusion of the Jury Trial next month.

That's phenomenal to hear. I remember watching the video with sound when it came out. I didn't know the "officers" were ALSO employed by the casino. Seems like a huge conflict of interest and I'm glad the judge saw straight through it. I sincerely hope the casino gets hit for a number that will hurt them, though I wont' hold my breath, but I DO HOPE the cops and security guards get hurt by the amount, as that should teach a lesson to the casino's wanna be 'thugs' whom do illegal things on their behalf, when in reality it's their individual noses that are open to being hurt the most.

What's the legal situation regarding providing ID again? Like when the police were confronting him as they were, and they had jailed him, would he have had another case against the department?

Quote: ahiromu

What's the legal situation regarding providing ID

It may vary from state to state, so check with your local lawyer, but in general, you do not have to provide ID for anything in a casino, even a CTR. Then again the casino could choose to write a SAR on you if you don't, but still legally you don't have to. This gets murky if you are or look young though. They could claim they're ID'ing you to check you age, which they CAN do, but all they can do at that point if you refuse or say you don't have it is ask you to leave, not detain you.

Quote: ahiromu

What's the legal situation regarding providing ID

You're more or less required to hand over your ID to the police if they have reasonable suspicion that you've committed a crime.

The casino can't compel you to produce ID under any circumstance.

Quote: Romes

It may vary from state to state, so check with your local lawyer, but in general, you do not have to provide ID for anything in a casino, even a CTR. Then again the casino could choose to write a SAR on you if you don't, but still legally you don't have to. This gets murky if you are or look young though. They could claim they're ID'ing you to check you age, which they CAN do, but all they can do at that point if you refuse or say you don't have it is ask you to leave, not detain you.

But if the casino invited u and sent a limo to pick u up clearly based on prior info they had i don think carding for age as an excuse would hold up

I can't imagine security was aware they had sent a limo for him. If so, they would have already had his information. The left hand rarely knows what the right hand is doing. Marketing and Security are two different worlds.

This, in no way, will stop any casino from being the thugs they are when it comes to AP'ers.

Quote: darkoz

But if the casino invited u and sent a limo to pick u up clearly based on prior info they had i don think carding for age as an excuse would hold up

They don't need a reason to ask, but you also don't need a reason to refuse. I do wonder though, if he had a host wouldn't they have his personal information on file?

A bit of a tangent....

I hit a jackpot at a casino and while waiting to be paid, a security guard approached me, asking for ID. Actually this has happened twice, at two different casinos, both with funny results. I'll share each separately.

1) I said something like, "I just hit a jackpot and I gave my ID to --", cut off by security guard, "It's the LAW you have to have ID to be in a casino...(rambles)". I said listen for a second, I just hit a jackpot and the slot attendant has my ID. He acted like that means nothing and continued on, "It's the law you have to have your ID...." After arguing for 10 minutes the slot attendant finally came by, asked what was the matter, I said this guy's hounding me for ID when I said you had it. She says he's just doing his job. (Yeah, right.) Might have been the first time I didn't tip on a jackpot. When asked to play another hand, I said no, cashed out and walked away slowly, watching her get flustered and have to reset the hand or do whatever she gotta do.

2) Same thing, told the security I gave slot attendant my ID. Actually it was slot manager because JP was a big one (for the place). I told him go ask so-n-so, the manager, he has my ID, or call on the walkie talkie and they'll verify I'm 21+. He doesn't want none of that, so he hangs out near me for at least half an hour. Manager comes back and says to come to cage with him to get paid. Security follows us to cage. I get paid, all is good, and it's been at least 45 minutes or an hour now. I'm walking back from cage and security stops me and asks for ID. Wow.....



Ah, not related to hitting a JP, but I was at one of them casinos where they ID you at the door. Whoever was at the entrance was off in lala land, facing the wall, looked like she was texting. Whatever. I kept walking. A good 10 seconds or so later I hear a "sir...sir!!!!", I just kept walking. She keeps yelling "sir, sir, I need to check your ID, sir!! Sir!!!" I keep walking. Some guy stops me and basically turns me around to her. Ugh. So I look at her confused, she's still at her stupid podium yelling she has to see my ID. So I pull out my ID from my wallet, kinda hold it out. She's thinking I'm gonna walk toward her. Hell no, I'm not doing that. So she has to walk a good chunk of distance across the casino to check my ID.

Normally I'll show ID when I walk in a casino (where they do that), but I'm not going to go out of my way to accommodate some idiot who's incapable of doing their job properly.




As far as showing ID, I think that'd be an excellent question for Bob. N.

Although I'm pretty sure you have to show one for a CTR.