Horseshoe Baltimore Card Counter Files $3M Unlawful Detention Lawsuit Against Casino

Posted on: December 30, 2024, 10:39h. 

Last updated on: December 30, 2024, 10:40h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

A Connecticut man well-known to casinos across the country for being a card counter has brought a lawsuit against Horseshoe Baltimore and its parent company, Caesars Entertainment, for alleged unlawful detention.

Horseshoe Baltimore casino Caesars lawsuit
Gamblers play table games at Horseshoe Baltimore. The casino owned by Caesars Entertainment has been named in a wrongful detention lawsuit. (Image: Baltimore Brew)

Jordan Kerr, a Connecticut resident living in North Haven, alleges in a lawsuit first filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court that casino security at Caesars’ Baltimore property unlawfully detained him during the early morning hours of Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. In his complaint, which has since been moved to Maryland’s federal District Court, Kerr claims a Horseshoe shift supervisor asked him for identification while he was seated at a blackjack table around 12:30 a.m.

Kerr told the woman that he would invoke his right to anonymity and leave the premises instead of providing ID. However, on his way to the door, Kerr says he was surrounded by casino security personnel and was informed that he was being detained and was not free to leave.

The Horseshoe security supervisor and a Horseshoe special police officer told Kerr that he would be arrested and placed in handcuffs if he did not go to the casino’s back room with them. In the face of the threats from Horseshoe personnel that they would commit unlawful physical battery against him if he did not go with them, Kerr proceeded to walk with them to the casino’s back room,” the complaint alleged.

Kerr claims he was told to sit and wait for Baltimore City Police to arrive. City officers never came.

Unlawful Detention Claim

Kerr is a self-described “advantage player,” or a skilled blackjack player who uses legal methods to gain a mathematical advantage against the house. Casinos refer to such players as card counters, a blackjack strategy used to determine if the dealer has an advantage on the next card.

While card counting isn’t illegal, most casinos prohibit the practice and will ban individuals suspected of counting cards. Kerr says he was down after gambling on blackjack at Horseshoe Baltimore after four hours of gambling.

After being detained in the casino’s back room for approximately 15 minutes, Kerr reports in his lawsuit that the security supervisor told him city police were not coming. Kerr claims he was read the casino’s trespassing language before being told that his confinement was over and that he was free to leave.

Kerr did not do anything wrong or illegal to justify being detained against his will and deprived of his liberty by Horseshoe casino and its personnel,” his complaint read. “As a result of Horseshoe casino’s false imprisonment of Kerr and battery they committed against him, Kerr has suffered loss of liberty, outrage, mortification, mental anguish, emotional distress, anxiety, loss of sleep, and hedonic injury.”

Kerr is seeking $3 million in damages for two counts of false imprisonment and battery.

Horseshoe Seeks Dismissal 

This isn’t the first time Kerr has sued a casino for false imprisonment. In 2018, he brought a similar lawsuit against Caesars New Orleans, then known as Harrah’s, on comparable grievances. That case was settled out of court.

Attorneys representing Caesars and Horseshoe Baltimore say there “is no legal or factual basis for punitive damages” and have requested Maryland District Court Judge Julie Rebecca Rubin to dismiss the complaint with prejudice and that Kerr be held liable for the defendants’ legal costs.