Posts Tagged ‘card counters’
The Future Of Blackjack
So, where is this all going? Are the days numbered for card counters? Many players fear this may be so, especially considering all the technological countermeasures that have been developed in the past decade.
Automatic shuffling machines are being introduced on more and more tables. These devices make shuffle tracking impossible, and they make it faster, and cheaper, for the dealers to shuffle more frequently. The new continuous shuffle machines make card counting itself impossible. Various types of "auto-peek" devices are now extensively employed to read the dealers' hole-cards, eliminating the possibilities of most legal hole-card strategies—tell play, warp play, first-basing.
Surveillance software that analyzes the skill levels of blackjack players is now used in many major casinos. Counters who have fooled the pit bosses for years suddenly are called up on a computer. Prototypes of "smart" blackjack tables—equipped with shoes that can read the cards as they're dealt, keep track of the players' hands and strategies, and record the players' betting histories via magnetized chips—are now being introduced in Nevada.
Even more ominous than these technological horrors are the legal problems card counters face. In Nevada, the Gaming Control Board is supposed to be an agency that protects the rights of both the casinos and the players, ensuring the fairness of the games. To the consternation of blackjack players, this official state agency has officially taken the position that Nevada's cheating statute, which prohibits the casinos from altering the table games in a way that would change the frequency of the payouts, does not apply to blackjack. Because of this ruling, many Nevada casinos now train their dealers in hand-held games to count cards and shuffle up any time the game favors the players, only dealing when the cards favor the house.
In New Jersey, the state supreme court has ruled that players whose civil rights have been violated by the casinos—even if those players are cheated at the tables—may not sue the casinos for damages. They must settle their differences with the Casino Control Commission, a state agency which claims no authority to order monetary reparations to casino patrons.
Card counters must accept the fact that the state gaming regulatory agencies are often corrupt. These "protective" agencies are in fact puppets of the casinos, controlled by that immensely wealthy industry. As a result, one of the most rewarding aspects of card counting is taking money from some truly evil entities. The dealers, pit bosses, shift managers, hosts, and most of the people a card counter will actually come into contact with in the casinos, are not themselves corrupt; they're worker ants, in the same way that people who work on the assembly line at a cigarette factory, or a munitions plant, are just people who have found a job to do, and they try to do it well in order to pay the rent and raise their families.
But lurking in the shadows of this gambling business are some truly slimy bastards. If you get into card counting with any serious amount of money, you will learn firsthand what a nasty business this is. Though it has been shown over and over in the courts that card counting is perfectly legal—nothing more than using your brain to play your hands—counters are viewed within the industry as parasites, cheats, and enemies to be eliminated by whatever means necessary.
Casinos throughout the world keep "mug books" of card counters' names and photographs, and these photos are hawked and sold on the open market. Despite the fact that these blacklists might violate various consumer laws, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, civil rights, laws against libel, slander, and the invasion of privacy, the state courts and police agencies throughout the U.S. and around the world systematically use these mug books to harass card counters and deny them access to the gaming tables.
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The Great Blackjack Myth Part2
What many people—including most card counters, system sellers, dealers, pit bosses, and the media at large—fail to comprehend is that being a successful professional card counter takes no less ability, study, dedication, time, and luck than any other profession. Card counters attempt to inconspicuously, legally, and consistently siphon large sums of money from a multi-billion dollar industry, which utilizes the most advanced surveillance techniques this side of the Pentagon.
Most card counters believe in the Great Blackjack Myth that flatly states that a card counter can beat the game of casino blackjack. The truth is that some card counting strategies can beat some blackjack games, depending on the number of decks being shuffled together, the number of players at the table, the number of cards being dealt out prior to reshuffling, the rule variations, the betting spread being employed, the size of the counter's bankroll, the actual skill of the player at applying the system, and so on. In casinos outside of New Jersey, the threat of being barred causes many counters to kill their own chances of winning. In Atlantic City, despite the no-barring law, card counters must still hide their skill because the casinos may enforce other betting restrictions on suspected counters, which eliminate the potential profits from counting cards. So, counters seek out more crowded, less conspicuous tables. They hold down their betting spreads, and they make occasional "dumb" playing decisions. All of these camouflage tactics cut into, and often kill, the counter's small potential edge.
Card counters, as a subculture, have developed a unique jargon. One term that all counters understand is "heat," which means that a pit boss is sweating your action, dealers shuffle the cards any time you raise your bet, or, worst of all, a floorman reads you your rights: "You may play any of the casino games except blackjack; if you attempt to place a bet at any blackjack table, you may be arrested for trespassing."
Many counters think they're getting away with murder when they don't get heat from casinos. The truth is that the casinos are swarming with counters, and most are easily detectable. By standing behind crowded blackjack tables, and counting down the cards as they are dealt, I can spot many obvious card counters in the course of a few hours. If I can spot them so easily, you can be sure the casino counter-catchers can spot them. Most counters follow obvious betting schemes, and to be sure, most counters are likely to get heat at one point or another in their playing careers, especially if they don't camouflage their play, although most of the time counters are not bothered by casino personnel. If the casinos actually gave heat to all the card counters at their tables, they would lose hundreds of customers, and their money, every busy night.
I'm not trying to give the impression that dealers and pit bosses are talented con artists who can act like they're afraid of card counters while knowing most counters are losers. Lower-level casino employees, such as dealers and pit bosses, know very little about card counting, and even those few who are trained to count cards in order to recognize their adversaries, often believe that all card counters pose a real threat to their profits.
There is no reason for the upper management of the casinos to educate dealers and pit bosses about the realities of card counting. Dealers and pit bosses, like many in the gambling subculture, are often highly superstitious, and ignorant of the mathematics of any of the games themselves. Counters love to share stories about superstitious pit bosses, and to most, casino management is dumb. This reminds me of Lenny Bruce's "Religions, Inc." bit where the fire-and-brimstone preacher is accused of being dumb. "Yeah, Tm a big dummy," he responds to his detractors. "I've got two Lincoln Continentals, that's how damn dumb I am!"
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