Crockfords

TL;DR

• Closed permanently in October 2023 after Genting cited "combination of factors" making high-end London casinos uncompetitive globally
• Phil Ivey's edge-sorting case, [2017] UKSC 67, was decided here; he lost £7.7 million in winnings
• Founded by William Crockford in 1828; the Curzon Street address dates to 1983, in a Grade I listed 1771 townhouse

Annabel's take

I went the week before they closed. Not because I had a premonition but because a member of many years' standing invited me, and I'd been trying to get in for the better part of a decade. Crockfords ran as a members-only casino in the upper floors of a Grade I listed 1771 townhouse at 30 Curzon Street, and the formality of it was unlike anywhere else in London. The lift took you up, the doors opened onto a floor that felt as though it hadn't changed its fundamental character since Lonrho bought the licence in the 1980s.

The baccarat room at Crockfords was where the serious private play happened in London. Not the Hippodrome's open floor, not the Empire's volume, but a room where the croupiers knew the players and the players knew the house edge without needing to ask. I watched a hand in the region of six figures settle in silence. The croupier, who had been there longer than I'd been writing about casinos, swept the losing chips with the same expression he might have used clearing a ten-pound wager.

The Phil Ivey affair of 2012 ran like a shadow over the venue's final decade. Ivey and Cheung Yin Sun won £7.7 million across two visits to the Crockfords baccarat tables using edge-sorting: a technique that exploits microscopic printing asymmetries on the backs of cards to identify high-value cards before they're turned over. Crockfords withheld the winnings; Ivey sued. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in [2017] UKSC 67 that Ivey's conduct, while not cheating under the criminal definition, constituted a breach of the implied term of honesty in the contract with the casino. He received nothing.

I never sat down at the Crockfords baccarat tables. I watched, I counted hands, I spoke to the floor manager. That was all I had time for before the doors closed for the last time in October 2023. The building went to market at £70 million, with a gaming licence still attached.

What you'll find at the baccarat tables

For the historical record: Crockfords ran standard Punto Banco in the high-limit private setting. The commission structure was the standard five percent on Banker wins. Minimums were commensurate with a private Mayfair members' club rather than a public floor. The room was known for handling wagers that other London venues would not accommodate without advance arrangement.

The Phil Ivey case turned on the specific properties of a Gemaco Borgata-brand deck, with its asymmetrically printed purple pattern. Ivey directed the dealer to rotate high-value cards 180 degrees using a pretextual superstition request, creating an exploitable asymmetry. The Supreme Court's ruling in [2017] UKSC 67 established that this technique, though not statutory cheating, was dishonest within the civil law sense as defined in Ivey v Genting Casinos UK Ltd.

Getting in

This section is, by necessity, historical. Crockfords closed permanently in October 2023. Genting Group's statement at the time cited "a combination of factors which have put high-end London casinos at a competitive disadvantage to other global market places," including the removal of VAT-free shopping for international visitors in 2021 following Brexit, post-pandemic footfall changes, and escalating operational costs. The building at 30 Curzon Street was listed for sale at £70 million in November 2023, with a gaming licence attached but no operator.

The venue followed the closures of The Ritz Club (March 2020, never reopened) and The Clermont Club (2018) in a pattern of Mayfair private gaming attrition. Green Park is the nearest tube station (Jubilee, Piccadilly, and Victoria lines), six minutes' walk.

The neighbourhood

Curzon Street is in the heart of Mayfair, one street north of Piccadilly between Park Lane and Berkeley Square. Annabel's nightclub is on Berkeley Square. The Curzon Mayfair cinema is on the same street. Shepherd Market, the village-within-Mayfair with its wine bars and independent restaurants, is two minutes east. The American Embassy's former Grosvenor Square site is ten minutes north.

The particular hotel that serviced Crockfords' clientele was the Dorchester on Park Lane, or the InterContinental at the bottom of the street. Both provided the kind of room that could absorb a late check-in after a long session without comment.

Sources

Sources: Genting Casinos Crockfords page (archived), G3 Newswire: Genting puts £70m pricetag on 30 Curzon Street, BBC News: Ivey Supreme Court ruling 2017, UK Supreme Court: Ivey v Genting Casinos [2017] UKSC 67.