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Beating Roulette With Computers & Lasers

MeerCat writes "The BBC are reporting that a group of gamblers who won more than £1m at the Ritz Casino by using laser technology have been told by police they can keep their winnings. A laser scanner linked to a computer was allegedly used to gauge numbers likely to come up on the roulette wheel. Of course this could be Labour spin to try and get people excited about the idea of cheating at mega casinos"

5 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Cheating? Bah! by standards · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Casino marketing manager:

    "There is a portion of the population that think that casinos are stupid waste of time because the odds say that the players CAN'T win.

    "Well... time to put a stop to that! Let's tell these smarties that very smart people that study the roulette wheel a lot can predict where the ball will land with some kind of accuracy. We'll suggest that people can tilt the odds in their favor! Haha!

    "But we all know that the steps to winning are:

    1. Get out casino mentioned in the news and in faux "cheating vegas" documentaries.
    2. Encourage these smarties to get themselves to the casino and play some roulette. Those smarties will think they are "honing their predictive capabilities."
    3. Profit!

    Heck, it worked for Blackjack... let's get them into roulette too!

  2. Re:Didn't break the law! by radish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Casino rules != The Law

    They probably did break casino rules, and they have almost certainly been banned from going back. But, that doesn't mean they broke the law.

    --

    ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

  3. Re:Labour spin? Huh? by Dizzle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IANAGAE (I am not a gambling addiction expert) but to me, it would seem far more likely that someone could get addicted to a megacasino with it's flashing lights, sounds, atmosphere, progressive jackpots, everything. They're just much slicker than anything else that people are used to and as such, it's far easier to become addicted. So yeah, I guess that would be a safe assumption.

    --
    -Dizzle
    "I most likely AM so interested in myself."
  4. Re:Of course no law was broken!-Broken Spirit. by mindstrm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, BS.

    It's a game of chance, yes, however, saying "it's not fair to those not similarly equipped" is irrelevant. You are not competing against other players at the table in any way. You winning or not has no effect on their ability to play, or to win. You are competing against the casino.

    The "spirit" of the game is guessing what's going to come up next based on the information available to you and everyone else at the table. If I am smarter than the guy next to me, is that an unfair advantage? If I count cards at blackjack, is that "unfair"? (No, it's not, but will likely get me asked to not play blackjack anymore at that particular casino)

    This is not about fairness or anyhting like that, it's purely about profit. Odds are in favor of the house. This device shifts the odds in favor of the players, therefore, the casinos cannot afford to operate the game if these devices are permitted on the premesis. Plain and simple. The same reason they do not allow card counters to play blackjack for too long, becuase they would continuously lose money.

    If there was no law on the books against this, then rightly so they should walk away with the money. The casino should do more to protect itself from this.

  5. Re:Of course no law was broken! by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Well...in Nevada, winning is pretty much illegal. If you're in a game with a guaranteed negative outcome (which Roulette certainly is), and you win, that's prima facie evidence that you're cheating. Just try to leave the casino with your winnings. They'll keep you in a back room and review the tapes until they can figure out what you were doing.

    Ask anyone who's worked in the "gaming" industry. There are NO winners. Sure, the occasional jackpot or lucky player, but that's just advertising.

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    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!