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Casino Insider Tells (Almost) All About Security
An anonymous reader writes "ComputerWorld has up a story on casino security technology, exploring the world of facial recognition technology and various other systems in casinos such as the Bellagio, Treasure Island, and Beau Rivage. Industry veteran Jeff Jonas reveals some of the secret scams he learned from the casino industry such as the infinite hundred dollar bill, the hollowed out chip cup, the palm (trading cards), the specialty code (inserted by rogue programmer into video poker machine) and the cameraman, as well as detailing how casinos strike back against fraudsters and cheats.'"
For some odd reason, the submitter has linked to the third page of a three page article. To no one's surprise, the editors did not catch this. Here is the link to page 1
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;270726757;pp;1;fp;4194304;fpid;1
Casino security has been used not only to ensure there is no theft or violence in the venue, but also to record the appearance of people who win a little bit too much, so that muscled goons can find them and warn them to cut it out. I was shocked how, in Bringing Down the House , the MIT blackjack team shows how no matter what disguises they tried, surveillance could establish that it was them.
One comment and already the site is down. Maybe he's already buried, along with his server, in a shallow grave out in the desert.
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/030708-vegas-insider.html?fsrc=rss-security
Don't forget about the biggest scam of all, known as "The Casino"
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/030708-vegas-insider.html?page=3
/getting sick of paging through 5 pages of a single page article. If I ever start an online mag, I'm going present one sentence per page just for fun.
So we seem to accept that machines are looking at our faces and alerting humans to "suspicious" individuals. Yeah, I guess I'm ok with that. I'll get scared when I get caught, and instead of dragging me into a back room, shining a light in my face and asking me questions, I have to sit down and answer NORA's questions. Once the machine gets to decide if I am guilty, we have lost. Oh wait...
The point is that people who gamble rarely understand the odds. Those that do understand the odds and the house percentage don't unusually gamble. Or if they gamble then they count cards as well.
Perhaps I'm reading it wrong, but I don't find this statement to be true.
There are plenty of people who understand the odds, but still love to gamble. To them it's about the thrill of possibly hitting it big. Those who do understand the odds tend to either play games like blackjack which is the only game in the casino which has positive odds, and those who simply walk in with $500 and intends to make it last as long as they can, but know that the chances of them walking out with more than they went in are not in their favor.
I'm not one of them, but then again I get it why others are like this.
The ones that count cards are simply trying to shift the odds in their favor for bigger payouts, and of course really only applies to blackjack (again, the only game with odds not in favor of the casino, but you have to know how to play to get your money).
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Is a trick you can maybe play on a regular vending machine. If you hit the coin return at just the right moment, there's a chance that you'll get some or all of your money back, especially if you insert change instead of single coins.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
I got approached by Casino security at the MGM Grand one night and was asked why I was looking at the cameras. I told the guy what business I was in and then proceeded to tell him about the 35 cameras that were around our general location. he was impressed and we talked a bit over a beer he bought me and even let me see one of the security offices.
Note: I spotted that the texas Holdem tables had wide angle cameras just under the lip where you sit. Not low enough to get up-skirt shots, but where they can spot cards being handed. I started looking for it when a friend of mine was told by the pitboss to stop handing $5 chips to his friend. that's when I decided to drop my chips and bend over to pick them up and spot the lenses.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Court TV used to run this series called The Takedown. Every week they tried to do some casino scam using a team of experts, often at the behest of the hotel's internal security. The way everything was staged was kind of fake in spots, but an interesting look regardless at the mechanics of actually trying to cheat at a casino. Fun show, don't know where it's still running but you might be able to find it somewhere (*cough* torrent *cough*).
I personally don't play games of chance for money, just Texas Hold'Em where people with poor math skills are a steady income source.
Actually, if you RTFA, you'll see that the "infinite $100 bill trick" works by hitting a sequence, and then asking for your $100 bill back. So presuming one of the buttons in the sequence isn't the "play this bet" button, you're not really risking anything. You either get your $100 back and have zero credit on the machine, or you get your $100 bill back and have $100 credit on the machine.
Though I certainly don't have the patience to run around a casino with a $100 bill and try different sequences to try to trip that feature...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Yea, version 12 sucked though. Version 13 was better but was still bloatware.
First post! (just in case I am...)
Maybe. The casinos might be a little worried that the MIT technique gets out into the general public and someone tries to takes them for a lot of money. More likely, they are probably delighted to rake in lots of money as novices try to beat them. Remember, it took an elite, trained team of MIT braniacs to beat them the first time. But, the casinos eventually caught on and have better countermeasures now. Your average Joe probably doesn't have what it takes to pull that caper off and will just lose all their money. Even the article says that the casinos will let card counters play if they are not good cause they lose.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
"That's the way they catch the bad guys," Jonas said. "They're generally idiots."
There is a romantic view of card counting. People assume it's a magical skill you pick up, then can just roll into a casino and use it as a personal ATM overnight.
The truth is, it gives you about a 1% edge over the house. That means that for every $10 you bet, you'll "earn" $0.10. You can get, maybe, 100 hands of Blackjack per hour on a good day.
And the "margin of error" (standard deviation) means that your long-term swings won't balance out until after about 12,000 hands. 120 hours of Blackjack, just to statistically be guaranteed to at least break even.
And all that is assuming you count perfectly, and play perfectly.
So after card counting gets hyped, you'll get a whole ton of people who want the quick win. They'll learn a quick hi/lo system. They won't practice. They won't learn basic strategy perfectly (quick, what's the proper move when you have 44 vs. a dealer's upcard of 5?). And they'll go into the casino. Maybe they'll double up quickly and walk away. More likely they'll just keep playing, have a few drinks, and either make a bit of money, or get frustrated and lose everything, or just play for a while and have fun. But in every case, they'll be playing with a disadvantage. Making a couple mistakes or missing a couple counts, maybe they're playing an even money game, or just 0.5% house edge. If they start steaming and making the big errors, they'll be giving the house 4-5% of their money on every hand.
And for the one in a thousand counter who does a good job and earns 1-2% on her money, they'll be 999 players who give it all back.
If card counting had the ability to destroy the casinos, they'd have been out of business a long time ago. Blackjack is profitable for the casino.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
If you bet the same every hand, you get that advantage.
If you work with a team and the next guy bets BIG, then its hugely in your advantage.
Your numbers are WAY off how multi-person counting works.
Interestingly, I've had dealers help me count before. Doing simple "count the tens" helps your odds on a non-continuous-dealt game, especially if you can get a one or two deck hand dealt. I had a dealer, who was watching me pull back as the tens had largely made their appearances actually told me "you don't want to take this next hit".
She was right.
Having worked as a cashier in a riverboat casino I've seen a lot of this stuff. However, I've also seen and heard a lot more about employees ripping off the casino than I did about players. You don't hear about the employees ripping off the casinos though because most of the time they just fire the person and tell them never to come back. I know this happened to at least three people who worked in my department. Two were fairly minor but one was several thousand dollars over a few months (that's how long it too the auditing department to pick up on his pattern and how he hid it). There are lots of ways employees can rip off the casino because they have a lot more access and know how the system works a lot better than most customers.
There were occasional customers passing counterfeit bills and people screwing with the machines or trying to bend cards but there was a lot more people soiling themselves because they didn't want to get up from their slot machine and people losing their homes because they were addicted (happened to a cousin of mine) or getting kicked off because they started yelling at us when their credit card was maxed out.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Well, since you bring up card counting, I now have an angle to bring up something and hopefully avoid the dreaded, eviscerating "Off-Topic"-wand-wielding maestro...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_(2008_film)
I just a few weeks ago read in a copy of Asian Week how these smart AMERICAN Asians figured out a card counting method and raked in the coin from one or more casinos. Now, we've got hollyweird picking up on this and whitewashing the cast. Amazing the shit hollyweird does to calculate to obtain the best studio ticket intake.
From Wikipedia, from Asian Week and Ben Mezrich (author of the book):
"Casting of Caucasian/Asian
Although the four main characters in Bringing Down the House were Asian-Americans in real life, studio executives have cast mostly white actors to portray them in the film. Ben Mezrich, author of Bringing Down the House, has noted a "stereotypical" casting process on the part of Hollywood.[1] In the book, Mezrich explicitly states that a young Caucasian betting large amounts of money stands out, while a young Asian or other minority would be less conspicuous. Asian Week called the casting a "whitewash," pointing out that if it were African Americans replaced by Caucasians, there would be more vocal protest."
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
No. If you vary your bet according to the count, you get the advantage. You need to be proportionally more as the count goes up, to make up for the small bets you made when the count was down.
If you work with a team and the next guy bets BIG, then its hugely in your advantage.Again, close. If you work with a team, then the next guy will not be playing at all during a low count. If you are counting, they you don't vary your bet at all. But when the count goes up, you signal the Big Player to come in. They place a large bet-- something that would seem suspicious if YOU put it down, but is normal for him. He only bets that amount and doesn't vary.
In that case, your advantage is EXACTLY THE SAME (~0.5% per count)-- but the EV will be greater. The more you bet, the more you'll earn, but the rate will be the same. If you have a 1.5% advantage, it doesn't matter if you bet $100 or $10,000. You will only "earn" 1.5% of that.
Your numbers are WAY off how multi-person counting works. Not really. And it depends on the type of team you are working with. If you have small player/big player (as above), then you will still need ~12,000 hands to overcome one standard deviation. If you are sharing a bankroll amongst many counters, then, well, you still need 12,000 hands, but you will be able to pool your hands. (Assuming you are all playing at separate tables). You reach the longterm much quicker, and lower your risk of ruin. Interestingly, I've had dealers help me count beforeUhhhg. Never rely on the dealer. They don't know what they're doing. They're just a flawed gaming machine made of flesh.
Doing simple "count the tens" helps your odds on a non-continuous-dealt gameNo. No it doesn't. It's useless to count the tens unless you are also counting the low cards that balance it. It's useless to know that five 10s have left the deck, unless you know how many low cards have also left the deck. The whole point about counting is to know the estimated composition of the remaining deck.
Example: You are counting the tens. 6 tens come out of the deck. You assume a count of -6, and lower your bet. I am hi/lo. I see those 6 tens come out, and then 12 low cards. I KNOW a count of +6, and raise my bet to take advantage of it. Guess who is coming out on top
I had a dealer, who was watching me pull back as the tens had largely made their appearances actually told me "you don't want to take this next hit".She was right.And she could just have easily have been wrong. She doesn't know what the next card is. Neither does a counter. A counter just knows the estimated composition of the deck, and can vary their bet or use an "index play". IE: Basic Strategy says 12 vs. 2 is a hit, because that move is the best possible play statistically. But at a count > 0, it becomes stand, because now that move is the bes possible play statistically. That doesn't mean the next card is a 10. It just means that you'll lose less by standing than by hitting.
You cannot point to a single hand and use that as proof for anything. Remember, 12,000 hands is where "long term" begins. Everything else is indistinguishable from luck. If anything, the dealer was taking a blind shot hoping for a tip.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
The casinos are more concerned about card counting teams then they are about individual players. In the team scenario there are counters at multiple tables who have no problem keeping the count and keeping their cool because they are always betting the minimum and never varying their bets. The trick is that they have to somehow signal the roving "high roller" to sit down when the deck is hot without tipping off security. This is one reason why many blackjack tables, particularly high limit tables, do not allow new players to sit down in the middle of a shoe (i.e. you have to wait until the shoe currently being played is finished, the cards are shuffled, and the next shoe is loaded).
Casinos would like you to believe in Ocean's 13 size IT rooms and facial recognition and such. The truth is that most casino security is low-tech (cameras and people). The largest cheating ring that was broken up recently involved a gaming commission, law enforcement, and the casinos themselves busting a partnership between outside cheaters and the employees working at the table. You have to remember, the states view cheating as bilking them out of the exorbitant taxes they get to rake from casinos since casinos are evil like cigarettes and okay to tax at obscene rates.
If some casino is using facial recognition scanning software etc, they probably are just peeing money down a drain. More likely, its hype designed to scare off cheaters. I think its a dumb idea to create this image though.
In Stalin's Russia, there wasn't a dossier on everyone, but the fear of a dossier on everyone was what helped keep the masses in check. Cultivating a fear in casino goers that they are under watch at all times and being scanned isn't in the interest of the big casinos. Casinos are the last place you are free to be free. You can let your hair down, have a politically incorrect drink, and inhale politically incorrect air.
Go to a casino, have fun, and remember that the cameras are more likely watching employees than they are watching you.
Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
Not really. The postscript in the book indicates that casinos no longer let you change tables as is required for the heavy better to make money.
Of course, there are two reasons the casinos aren't too concerned:
So the casinos just balance the likelyhood of an effective team coming to town vs. the chance that they'll spot them in operation. Then they tally up the amount they'll earn from their tables from bad players. That'll tell them how much it's worth spending on anti-counting training/technology/etc. Why spend $500,000 on a new system to keep someone from earning $250,000 / year off you-- especially if there's only a 0.001% chance that team will come around. The numbers are fudged, but it's all just a numbers game. Somewhere along the lines, someone gets paid a bunch of money to tell them what the numbers are.
This is one reason why many blackjack tables, particularly high limit tables, do not allow new players to sit down in the middle of a shoe (i.e. you have to wait until the shoe currently being played is finished, the cards are shuffled, and the next shoe is loaded)NMSE - No Mid-Shoe Entry. Yup, just about all the high-roller tables have that. It's rarer on the mid or low level tables, though, since their bread and butter is unskilled, transient traffic. I've seen a $50-$2500 table that allowed midshoe entry. Let me tell you, seeing people drop $500 a hand on a game they don't know how to play-- that's quite a sight to watch. Maybe I should just open a casino.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
(Must remember to preview before posting. Please mod parent down) There is an excellent BBC series called The Real Hustle that details the inner workings of a lot of scams. They've recently been showing the Vegas scams, here's a few links
Hollowed out chip scam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dDOMyzmkaA
Blackjack scams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phnkp4R0iJI
Brass balls blackjack scam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu9uAaQs-LQ
There are hundreds more on youtube if you search
I used to work at a 7-11 and believe me, the prominently-placed security cameras there were less about recognizing the face of the stick-up man as he's making his getaway and more about watching the employees as they lift money out of the register and put it into the pockets of their smocks. People are stupid. They steal, and they steal for bullshit stakes.
My 7-11 had a policy where employees kept <$100 in the register (all $20 bills and up went immediately into the timed safe). We had one employee who "forgot" the policy one particular day, and "coincidentally" that was the same day some "random" guy came in, held him up, and took all the money out of the register -- less than $1K but considerably more than was supposed to be in there. The employee really, seriously thought that the video cameras were going to vindicate him -- "look, there's the guy threatening me, isn't he scary?" As if an armed robbery had ever happened at this suburban 7-11 store before, in all the years it had been in business, up until exactly about three weeks after this clown was hired.
Another guy had been working there for about two days when some kids ran in and, in a flash, stole about six cases of beer. Security cameras showed the employee was nowhere to be found during the robbery. An eyewitness later came forward and said the employee had been standing out in front of the store during the incident, smoking a cigarette.
The smartest guy who ever ripped the place off actually kept his cool and bided his time. He was this Abercrombie and Fitch looking kid who was always all smiles and glad-handing, always ready to agree with the owners, always ready to talk down the other employees. Compared to the rest of the long-haired tweakers who worked at the store, he must have looked like the all-American boy. So they made him manager. About a month later, he walked away from the back office with about $6,000, abandoning his car in the lot.
Even that guy was stupid, though. Like I said, he abandoned his car in the front lot. So a coworker and I broke into it. Rifling his dashboard, we found a court summons. He was scheduled to appear in about two weeks' time on a prior charge. We called the sheriff's department and asked if they could please meet him at his court date at such-and-such time. And guess what? He actually showed up.
But the cops didn't. They showed up about 45 minutes late, by which time the case had already cleared the docket. Better luck next time, huh? So I guess the moral of the story is that there's a reason for stuff like video cameras if you're a business owner. Better grab all the evidence you can possibly get, because you might need it later. If you rely on the cops you could be in for a long wait.
Breakfast served all day!
I read the book. It's awesome. I've seen the trailers for the movie, it seems they've already taken liberties, sucks, because the book didn't seem liked it needed them.
The MIT scam was not card counting. Card counting tracks probabilities of cards based on what's been dealt. The technique in the book was knowing exactly what a card in a shuffle would be. If the dealer lets you see the tail card and you get to cut the cards alone and you are skilled enough to cut the cards to count to card you saw and you can track the card count through all the cards and deals and the card is a 'big' card (face or ace) that can affect a hand wildly for better or worse, then you can adjust your bet for that one hand based on you knowing that one card. Most advantageous is when you have tracked a face card and you know you will bust the dealer. It also works better with a team, at least where you can control all nodes at the table. You and the other person can then use the count to force the card to either one of the hands, or the dealer.
This is harder to track than card counting, because you play normally most hands, just bet big (and somewhat out of character, which helped lead to their downfall) every once in a while and win big.
The one thing that struck me most in reading the book is that they really never understood human nature, specifically humans working for the casino. They kept on saying "well, we're not cheating" and expected there to be no problems. You're taking massive amounts of money from casinos - they don't like that. They seemed totally unaware of the dangers they faced, physically.
I believe this is the first time I've seen, on Slashdot, a reference to Soviet Russia in a legitimate, educational way.
Shame on you.
Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.