It has been three long months, but we have a resolution in a tournament marred by fake chips at Borgatain Atlantic City. New Jersey gaming officials and Borgata announced on Monday that each of the final 27 players, who have watched the prize pool sit frozen since January, will receive $19,323. Read the ruling.

First place was scheduled to make $372,000 and the top four players would have received over $100,000 had the tournament, the opening event of the Borgata Poker Open, played out like normal. The $19,323 payout is about what 10th place would have made.

In late January, Christian Lusardi was charged with introducing fake chips into the tournament, which was cancelled when 27 players remained after casino staff found “a significant number” of fake 5,000-unit chips.

A total of 2,143 players in the event will receive $560 back, which represents the tournament’s $500 buy-in plus $60 in juice paid to Borgata. They include, according to PokerNews:

1. All entrants who played Tuesday, January 14 on Day 1A beginning at 10:00am, with the exception of those entrants who played in the Event Center and busted out prior to 4:30pm (those entrants could not have come into contact with Lusardi).
2. All entrants who played Wednesday, January 15 on Day 1B beginning at 10:00am, with the exception of those entrants who played in the Signature Room and Poker Room on that day and were eliminated (those entrants could not have come into contact with Lusardi).
3. All entrants who played Thursday, January 16 on Day 2.
4. Entrants who re-entered any Day 1 after busting out may also be eligible for a refund of $560 per entry, depending on the above criteria.

Players in the above four groups, according to Borgata, “may have been impacted by the counterfeit chips,” but did not make the top 450.

As we mentioned, the top 27 players will each receive $19,323 and, as Borgata explained, “Entrants who finished in 28th to 450th place who have already received their prize money will not receive any further disbursements. Borgata has paid a total of $892,690 to this group to date. All entrants in this group who have not yet been paid will receive the amount they would have been entitled to according to their order of finish.”

There’s already a class-action lawsuit filed against Borgata and several posters on Two Plus Two who were irate with Monday’s ruling were frenetically looking up information about it.

Borgata is distributing $1.7 million, which according to PokerNews includes the $1.4 million in remaining prize money that should have been paid to the top 27 plus $60 in juice for 2,143 entrants added by Borgata. Players will be paid by check within 10 business days.

Lusardi(pictured) was picked up after he flushed many of the fake chips down the toilet of his Harrah’s Atlantic City hotel room. That prompted plumbing issues and Lusardi’s plot was quickly unearthed. So far, he is the only person who has been arrested in connection with the misgiving. Lusardi also faces charges of a bootlegging DVDs.

Stay tuned for more on this still-developing story.

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