What would stop a casino...

[Aslan]

The whole discussion is based on a hypothetical. No one believes that any major casino, and maybe no other casino save an illegal mob run operation, would risk their license (the illegal operation has no license to worry about in the first place). But it is possible with the right authorities paid off so that the risk of detection is eliminated, if you think there are authorities susceptible to bribes. How could it be used? What if you have a whale hooked, or someone who is beating the casino badly-- a click of a tiny transmitter could instruct the shuffle machine to switch to a cooler arrangement. Another plan could be to let everyone win, win, win, until the hook is firmly embedded in mouth, then ring in the cooler shoe. Someone suggested that the casino games are so poor anyway, that no one has much chance of winning without the need for cheating. This is oh, so reasonable to reasonable men, but crooks do not always think like the rest of us. Their greed is truly a disease and they may not be satisfied with the sure win rate they already have and want to squeeze the last drop quickly from their sucker base on the theory that there's a sucker born every minute of every day.

Anyway, like I said, it's all hypothetical. Some one said, when you begin to get paranoid at the weird things that are happening to you in a shoe, simply switch to another table, if for nothing else, to clear your head and discard all the negativity that is building up. That just sparked another thought-- I wonder if the count can be good while they hand you your head? Ordinarily when things go awry, the count is plummeting; I wonder if a cooler can maintain a good count while they pluck your feathers.

[Aslan]

By having one player with small bets not follow BS

The way it works, only the player not using BS has a chance of winning the hand. His departure from BS has no effect on the other players. This is because the bj cooler does not depend on the exact ordering of particular cards to work it's evil purpose, only a relative ordering of cards that are not affected by what any one player does. I'm sure there are other sources for this bit of information besides The Book, but I couldn't tell you offhand what they are.

[Frostbyte]

Anyway, like I said, it's all hypothetical. Some one said, when you begin to get paranoid at the weird things that are happening to you in a shoe, simply switch to another table, if for nothing else, to clear your head and discard all the negativity that is building up. That just sparked another thought-- I wonder if the count can be good while they hand you your head? Ordinarily when things go awry, the count is plummeting; I wonder if a cooler can maintain a good count while they pluck your feathers.

This, I think, would certainly demand the exacting stacking both of us have referenced with regard to poker.

[Aslan]

This, I think, would certainly demand the exacting stacking both of us have referenced with regard to poker.

If so, they would not use it. A bj cooler where everyone has to make the perfect decision is worthless IMO.

[Aslan]

The cooler was demonstrated at a blackjack convention. It doesn't matter what the players do they will lose every hand with BS and any deviation quickly brings the cooler to where everyone loses. I first heard of it decades ago and put together a full shoe and played with the cut, number of hands being played, different strategies for playing but nothing or any combination of things I tried for around thirty hours of tinkering could break thr affect of massive loses of every player at the table. I gave up and decided the claim that seemed so impossible, the players lose almost every hand in the shoe, was correct.

I think I played that shoe at the Trump Plaza several years ago.

[BOND]

The whole discussion is based on a hypothetical. No one believes that any major casino, and maybe no other casino save an illegal mob run operation, would risk their license (the illegal operation has no license to worry about in the first place). But it is possible with the right authorities paid off so that the risk of detection is eliminated, if you think there are authorities susceptible to bribes. How could it be used? What if you have a whale hooked, or someone who is beating the casino badly-- a click of a tiny transmitter could instruct the shuffle machine to switch to a cooler arrangement. Another plan could be to let everyone win, win, win, until the hook is firmly embedded in mouth, then ring in the cooler shoe. Someone suggested that the casino games are so poor anyway, that no one has much chance of winning without the need for cheating. This is oh, so reasonable to reasonable men, but crooks do not always think like the rest of us. Their greed is truly a disease and they may not be satisfied with the sure win rate they already have and want to squeeze the last drop quickly from their sucker base on the theory that there's a sucker born every minute of every day.

Anyway, like I said, it's all hypothetical. Some one said, when you begin to get paranoid at the weird things that are happening to you in a shoe, simply switch to another table, if for nothing else, to clear your head and discard all the negativity that is building up. That just sparked another thought-- I wonder if the count can be good while they hand you your head? Ordinarily when things go awry, the count is plummeting; I wonder if a cooler can maintain a good count while they pluck your feathers.

Most of the casino cheating I have encountered is in relatively small casinos (6 table games or less) in foreign countries. Many foreign governments (especially in third and second world nations) provide little or no government oversight of casino operations. Also, accepting bribes is a part of the culture in many third and second world nations. So if a casino is caught cheating, there is an easy way out: bribe the corresponding police officer or government official.

When I play at a smaller casinos in foreign countries, I pay more attention to casino procedures like opening and closing table games. If possible, I prefer to see the cards displayed face-up and counted before starting to play. I talk with other players and find out who the owners are, how long the casino has been in existence, and what other casinos or businesses they run.

If I suspect the casino is cheating, I immediately stop playing and watch the dealer and other players. Learn from the experience.

For more information on cheating, read Steve Forte's book "Casino Game Protection."

[21gunsalute]

My luck's been so bad lately, my hands have been terrible, and the dealer makes 21's and blackjacks seemingly 10 times more than I've beeen able to. I wondered if there was some kind of cheating involved, but I couldn't figure out what they could be doing to cheat so I dismissed the notion. Now I may have to reconsider it.

[zengrifter]

User is banned, content deleted.

[Aslan]

When I was a kid, 21-22 and just starting, sometimes I would hit a strong negative flux and start imagining that the casino was doing some sort of black magic voodoo.

Puerto Rico casinos were the first to use shoes at BJ and that is where the first prism-mirror shoes were created, for dealing seconds -

When I was a kid, I remember learning all there was to know about cheating at cards, not to use, but to protect myself from the grifters (no pun or insinuation intended). It wasn't until years later that I came to the realization that no matter how much I knew, they either knew more or would come up with something that was not in my data bank, and would use it if the opportunity arose to drain me of my hard earned dollars. This comes after thinking you know it all and then you come upon new gaffs and trickery that you had never before imagined.

I had already come to the conclusion that no game in these United States of America that was played for a limit of $5 or more (1960s dollars) was entirely on the up and up. I forthwith stopped playing poker, as there were no casinos nearby, and as I had virtually stopped gambling entirely anyway (except for the penny poker with the office crowd and the obligatory office football pools) during my years of gainful employment. I don't remember when, but at some point I realized that casinos were the only relatively safe places to gamble with respect to cheating, poker excepted, but it was certainly not a place where one had a good chance of prevailing in the long run, and mostly not in the short run either (this was prior to learning advantage play).