After reading "Beat the Dealer" and reading about all of the cheating the casinos have done in the past according to Thorp. Do the casinos still cheat players at Blackjack? Has anyone ever caught them cheating at BJ? Suspicions? I'm just curious to know different responses on what to possibly watch out for.
I have never read that book but it probably has some outdated info. Cheating isnt something you have to worry about to much anymore from things i have read. But one easy thing is just to play at places that spread out the cards on the table( most casinos do it). And also if you at the end of the deal if it always ends on a high count there could be 10s or aces stripped from play.
Pitch games, definitely, 99.9% of the time it's done by rogue employees. I'd suspect that you have a less than 2% chance of being cheated at a pitch game though in a U.S. non-tribal casino. In tribal casinos or international casinos all bets are off and your chances of being cheated (or having your money outright stolen by casino management) goes way way up. There are several stories now about casinos in London just claiming card counting is cheating and waiting for players to either win big or buy-in big while losing and then make a comeback to get back to even or slightly ahead and then just have security eject them and keep their money.
Problem is, unless you're a card mechanic or magician yourself you will never really know for sure if you are being cheated. There are things to watch for mentioned in several books and those warning signs have not really changed over the last 50 years. (dealer turning wrist, keeping hands low, fiddling with chips in the middle of hand, etc). Best way when playing a pitch game is to just refuse to lose more than a certain amount to any single dealer, particularly if these warning signs are visible, and particularly in casinos with poor surveillance/poor management.
That said, you should not be overly paranoid about it either.
Last edited by bigplayer; 12-10-2013 at 04:54 AM.
I've run into confirmed cheating in charity games several times. It's easier to cheat in poker than blackjack, due to the poorer camera quality, and the fact that management's money is not at stake.
I've run into a dealer who was dumping to a confederate as well.
The Cash Cow.
Thanks for the info. I'm suspicious of pitch games just in case the dealer is a mechanic. Unless a player is really paying attention I know it's hard to spot their moves. Less than a 2% chance of being cheated in a U.S. non-tribal casino, I guess that seems reasonable knowing that casinos could lose their gaming license if they did get caught. What is so different with tribal casinos in the U.S.? I didn't realize that casinos in London were resorting to low-ball tactics as you explained. That's low down.Originally Posted by bigplayer
They are sovereign nations and the casino is part of the nation. You have no legal recourse if they cheat you or decide that you're cheating even though you're using completely legal methods to beat the house. In short, they can take your money and there isn't anything you can do about it except hope that you can put the fear of God into them via bad publicity. You have to sue them in their own tribal courts where the "decks" are stacked against you because the same people that run the casino run the court.
I suspect in small casinos, tribal casinos and casinos not doing so well, cheating at BJ does exist. In a slow period when a table does not have a dealer, a pit guy could easily remove 1-2 ten cards from a 6 deck or 8 deck shoe and no one will notice. Maybe a deler is involved too.
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Phil Ivey is probably the most famous one of late:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...technique.html
you are better off not worrying about cheating than worrying about cheating nowadays. It is extremely unlikely casinos endorse it. If caught, they can lose license. Be aware there is very slim possibility. It is usually dealer helping a friend. Hand held games, unusual wrist motions to watch for. Small casinos, way out of beaten path, tribal games and such. Arnold snyder's latest edition of blackbelt in blackjack, throp's beat the dealer discusses cheating techniques. Lance humble's world's greatest blackjack book goes in length to the point of paranoia.
Nope. . . . nothing whatsoever to do with "cheating" players at the blackjack tables. If anything, that was more a case of Mr I engineering conditions on that punto banco game that gave him an advantage - which the house considered to be an unfair advantage and grounds for refusing to pay up. Whatever happened to his litigation against Crockfords?
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