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Computer-Based System To Crack Down On Casino Card Counters
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Yahoo Tech outlining a system currently being researched: "Card counting is perfectly legal — all a counter does is attempt to keep track of whether the cards remaining in a deck are favorable to his winning a hand (mainly if there are lots of tens and aces remaining in the deck) — but it's deeply frowned upon by Vegas casinos. Those caught counting cards are regularly expelled from casinos on the spot and are often permanently banned from returning. But given the slim house odds on Blackjack, it's often said that a good card counter can actually tip the odds in his favor by carefully controlling the way he bets his hands. And Vegas really doesn't care for that. The anti-card-counter system uses cameras to watch players and keep track of the actual 'count' of the cards, the same way a player would. It also measures how much each player is betting on each hand, and it syncs up the two data points to look for patterns in the action. If a player is betting big when the count is indeed favorable, and keeping his chips to himself when it's not, he's fingered by the computer... and, in the real world, he'd probably receive a visit from a burly dude in a bad suit, too. The system reportedly works even if the gambler intentionally attempts to mislead it with high bets at unfavorable times." It's not developed in Vegas, though, according to the brief description (the other projects are also interesting) from the University of Dundee's release, but rather in conjunction with the Dundee Casino.
Private companies have the right to refuse service to anybody. And if you're asked to leave, you're trespassing on private property if you don't vacate immediately.
Um, casinos don't send burly dudes anymore. This isn't the 70's. In fact, if they suspect you of counting they simply politely ask you to stop playing. If you are caught playing again, then they may ask you to cash out your chips and walk you out.
No what they do is put 6 decks in the shoe but then play 4+ (they will reshuffle somewhere in the middle of the 5th deck). I had heard before that for the most part they don't care about people trying to count cards because it's hard to do correctly, and if you don't do it correctly then you're going to lose in the long run anyway. I suppose this system is one way to weed out the people who are doing it correctly.
make casinos plenty of money. Every time I hear about bullshit like what is reported in this article, I always suspect that the casinos are behind it. I wasted years playing blackjack, counting cards, and losing money (great recreation, losing money), and I never once witnessed anyone being banned at the blackjack tables. The idea that this is common is a lie. So, get good at counting cards, go to the casino, count your way to a measly fraction of a percent advantage over the house and still watch your money burn. Too bad you didn't consider risk of ruin. Give me a 100x more bankroll and I'll give anyone a fraction of a mathematical edge.
FAQs are evil.
> Card counting is illegal?
From the, second sentence of the summary: "Card counting is perfectly legal."
This place is getting more and more like the comment boards on the newspapers. Noise to signal ratio rising by the minute.
Well then your chance should come soon... I don't know when you went, but the EUR is nearing all-time highs against the USD again. And has been rising for months on end now. So assuming your money is in EUR and you want to buy USD then it's getting pretty cheap by now.
Or of course you could consider Macau. Their currency (the pataca) is coupled to the Hong Kong dollar, which is coupled to the USD. And casinos there just use HKD all the time. No idea if it's as good as Vegas, it is at least very different. I like the city - especially it's historical Portuguese-looking centre.
Yes. As I explain in that other post of mine, I don't think our world, in which companies can arbitrarily refuse to do business with people, is the best of all possible worlds.
Technically that strategy gives finite gains (ie. 0% return on investment). If you have a finite amount of money, however, the steady gains will be (in a fair game exactly, in a casino game more than) counterbalanced by the slim possibility of losing everything.
It's not a morality issue. They just try to spin it that way. It's a business decision.
They don't want people playing that are costing them money.
You are so very very wrong. Two Words: Happy Finish
Get it?
Oh, and it's not an hour. 45 minutes tops.
Card counting is used when playing blackjack and similar games, it has nothing to do with poker.
I think, therefore I am. I think?
Discriminating based on mental abilities would be just as illegal as discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or sex in many European countries.
This is nonsense, there is no legislation about discriminating on mental abilities.
Thankfully we don't live in Europe and a private business is still free to choose who they want to do business with. If you think it's "discrimination" then you are equally free not to do business with them or even to try and get people to boycott them.
This is nonsense too. You saying you can open a bar in New York and stick a 'No Blacks' sign in the window?
There exist continuously reshuffling card machines. They just pull cards out of it. When they are done with a hand, they put the used cards back in to the machine, and it will continuously shuffle the deck.
Card counters are thwarted completely and there is no time lost for reshuffling. Although, I don't think these machines are legal in vegas. I have seen them on cruise ships and other casinos.
This is completely, totally untrue. They do NOT have to have the same payout rate, and there is no legal requirement for backing off counters at all.
I don't know why you think this, but it's wrong. The strip casinos vary quite a lot in house edge and blackjack rules. House edge with perfect strategy ranges from 0.20% to about 2%, depending on house rules, a factor of 10! You'll even find the same casino offer vastly different rules/edge depending on bet level and pit location.
This is totally untrue.
The dealer does NOT have the ability to decide to shuffle early. The dealers are not allowed to make any decisions at all.
If they're doing this, they're cheating, and can lose their gaming license over it.
The probablity of losing 2 rounds in a row is .26. but that doens't mean if you lose the first round, your odds of losing the second round are .26. Your odds of losing the second round are still .51.
You're treated like a king in vegas for only dropping 2-300 bucks? What hotel is this?