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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.

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  1. Re:White trash Re:And things like this are why... by PiSkyHi · · Score: 0, Redundant

    As far as I can tell, there is only 1 way to gamble with the odds in your favor - its possible to bend the odds if you play just a few rounds or roulette and never play again.

    Playing a game of double down for 3 rounds choosing a single color each time will give you a high chance of making a small profit and a small chance of losing all with a double 0 on the last round - of course you must quit whilst you are ahead as soon as it happens, then quit gambling for good.

    This will work for 1 player, but the house will still profit since the chance of getting a double 0 on the last round is disproportionate to the amount you will lose if it happens.

    I've considered walking in willing to risk 7 grand on this just to make 1, but I haven't had the guts to try yet, despite the odds being well in my favor.