The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has been dealt a major setback in its efforts to make a playing-card manufacturer repay the $9.6 million that a professional poker player won in an edge-sorting scandal.

Celebrity poker player Phil Ivey won that amount in a 2012 Baccarat marathon with help from an assistant who can identify face-down cards through tiny printing flaws on their backs. But the most the casino could recover from the card company at trial is $26, which is the amount it paid for the cards, U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman ruled Monday.