...but he lied. If they had said, "Hey, why do you want this?" and he said, "I think I've got a system for beating baccarat", and they went ahead anyway, they're idiots.
But they asked and he said that he was just superstitious, it was for luck. At that point he was being disingenuous.
Was it legal? Probably, I'm not a lawyer. Was it ethical? I'm leaning towards no.