Casino law

[Norm]

Preferential shuffling could be defined in two manners:

Shuffling when the advantage is in the player’s favor
Shuffling when the house thinks the advantage is in the player’s favor by actions of the player

In the first case, my non-lawyerly opinion is that the casino has violated the law, at least in Nevada.
The second case is more complex. I don’t see a letter-of-law violation in Nevada. But, there is a clear spirit-of-law violation in that the dealer is not supposed to have a strategy. The dealer is supposed to follow strict rules and is specifically not allowed to change the odds of the game.

[Exoter175]

They still use countermeasures that will make you choose not to play because they make playing not worth the time. New Jersey is one such state. I am not sure about the other so I won't state what I think it is from fuzzy memory. The info isn't terribly useful due to my first sentence.

Missouri and NJ will both employ almost identical countermeasures against you, and the law is nearly identical between the two.

New Jersey and Missouri and both can still take other countermeasures against you that have the same net results as a backoff. They can move the cut card to halfway (or worse) they can shuffle at will, and NJ can put a variety of bet restrictions on you.

Missouri also has betting restrictions. The restrictions however, cannot be unilateral. If they restrict your Max bet, it affects the whole table, and vice versa. They cannot specifically target (in Missouri specifically, and I"m pretty confident NJ is the same) only you.

I've had colleagues in MO that have had 5D cut off.

That, I do no believe. I believe in the fine line of the law there is a restriction set in place in MO for either 4D or 3D cut limit, however, they can shuffle at will ,change the shuffle style, apply uniform table max/min changes to your table, change dealers as much as every hand (burn 1 card) and short deck the game. Deal out 1 table hand, reshuffle, etc.

Basically speaking, you go in there and kill them, they'll make the game so bad you are forced to walk out. The upside is, you can literally count at the table if you so desire, and they can't do a thing about it, in terms of physically removing you from there or the casino as a whole.

Lets just say that I play a lot in MO, and its kind of my "stomping grounds".

[Exoter175]

Preferential shuffling could be defined in two manners:

Shuffling when the advantage is in the player’s favor
Shuffling when the house thinks the advantage is in the player’s favor by actions of the player

In the first case, my non-lawyerly opinion is that the casino has violated the law, at least in Nevada.
The second case is more complex. I don’t see a letter-of-law violation in Nevada. But, there is a clear spirit-of-law violation in that the dealer is not supposed to have a strategy. The dealer is supposed to follow strict rules and is specifically not allowed to change the odds of the game.

Its not considered illegal in any state because they will always pull the trump card which is going to be "rules and regulations", and just about every gaming division has a rule in there about a floor guy being able to authorize a reshuffle, recut, or otherwise based on their hunch of an improper shuffle. Basically speaking, they can do what they want about a preferential shuffle as there is a loophole in every state, Missouri and New Jersey just have rules setup to do it lawfully with Bad Intentions.

[blackjackomaha]

Missouri and NJ will both employ almost identical countermeasures against you, and the law is nearly identical between the two.

That, I do no believe. I believe in the fine line of the law there is a restriction set in place in MO for either 4D or 3D cut limit, however, they can shuffle at will ,change the shuffle style, apply uniform table max/min changes to your table, change dealers as much as every hand (burn 1 card) and short deck the game. Deal out 1 table hand, reshuffle, etc.

Basically speaking, you go in there and kill them, they'll make the game so bad you are forced to walk out. The upside is, you can literally count at the table if you so desire, and they can't do a thing about it, in terms of physically removing you from there or the casino as a whole.

Lets just say that I play a lot in MO, and its kind of my "stomping grounds".

Hmmm, interesting. Maybe it was 4D? He was pretty adamant about it, but perhaps his emotions inflated the cut he reported.

I've only had measures taken against me in KC. I don't visit too often, but it's gotten worse enough over the last couple of years that I contemplate skipping it, even when I'm near the area.

[Exoter175]

Hmmm, interesting. Maybe it was 4D? He was pretty adamant about it, but perhaps his emotions inflated the cut he reported.

I've only had measures taken against me in KC. I don't visit too often, but it's gotten worse enough over the last couple of years that I contemplate skipping it, even when I'm near the area.

He probably had 3-4 decks cut off from a 6D shoe is my guess.

As for measures being taken, some of them are far worse than others at it. About half of the casinos in Missouri are owned by 1 or 2 larger companies, and they love to employ measures at any given point because they feel like the law protects them enough, despite actually protecting counters, to levy the measures against guys I've seen who weren't counting, but were making money.

Just last week, in Missouri, I had one of the floor personnel try to distract me from doing what I was doing, and they had two dealer switches within 10 hands or so, and then cut the deck at about 55% pen. I was counting, but I wasn't at a real advantage at any one point, the TC was either at zero or +1 for about 3 or 4 shoes before I got off the table, so I was more or less playing Basic Strategy against them, but succeeding well at it. I had one very, very brief point where I saw a TC+4 and decided to split 10's against a 6, which ended up maxing out at 4 hands with a dealer bust, while playing two hands on the table. Aside from that, I was just grinding.

In either case, they can, and sometimes will employ their countermeasures against you if you're doing well, even they have zero evidence of you counting.

There are, however, two missouri casinos that I know of that will basically let you squeak by counting as long as you aren't playing high stakes tables and trying to burn them to the ground.