Vegas casinos not playing fair!

[CharlieMaxwell]

The rules are posted on all casino blackjack tables, while the ‘house’ edge has been calculated in numerous sports books for those who inquire. Now imagine a casino using a tool it doesn't disclose to increase its edge over the customer. A pending lawsuit hopefully will expose this ludicrous practice and force casinos to offer a fair game.

Read the rest of Wild Bill's latest column by going to the RX home page at www.therx.com

Charlie

 

[Fishhead]

WOW!

Is this really necessary?

NO!

Gonna stop right now because this kinda stuff irritates the crap out of me.

---FISH---

 

[soccerbob]

I always enjoy reading Wild Bill's column. This one was especially well done. Even I was a bit surprised and nothing in this dive city surprises me. The reason the casinos do the low down things that they do is because they can. There are two main reasons for this.

The first one is the fact that apx 36 million people came to this overated tourist trap last year and more will come this year. They pay $150 for a $50 hotel room and $100 for has been, washed up showroom headliners. They'll pay $200 for dinner for two so they can say they ate where a celebrity chef has his name on the door and they could see a waterfall. They'll pay $300 for a handbag in one of those tourist trap boutiques. The casinos constantly tighten up the slot and video poker machines and change the odds and rules on table games anytime they want. Why not? The people will come anyway.

The second reason is the dog and pony show known as the Nevada Gaming Commission. They are supposed to be regulating licensed gaming establishments in the state of Nevada. The casinos run the Nevada Gaming Commission, not the other way around. You can set your watch by this. Every six months or so there will be an article on the front page of our local comic book, The Las Vegas Review Journal, stating that some casino was fined $100,000 for some paper shuffler in a back office not dotting an "i" or crossing a "t" on some cash reporting paperwork. Real heavyweight stuff. Of course the fine is never paid and the public actually thinks the Gaming Commission is right on top of the casinos. The Gaming Commission employees are for the most part, bean counters hired to make sure the state gets their fair share from what the casinos take in. From a regulatory standpoint, they're a joke. The only way most of the regulatory head honchos could find a casino is if their Lexus broke down in front of one.

 

[bulldog77]

The total subservience of the NGCC is proven every time when one of their employees leaves the the Commission after 7-10 years and is than is hired by one of the big LV casinos for 3 times what he was making for Gaming 'Control'. Its just bribery after the fact for being a good boy or girl and not really regulating anything.
What's really funny (in a sick sort of way) is their occasional fine for a gaming violation which always seems to be against some tiny casino in Ely or Winnemucca who obviously isn't ponying up enough in campaign contributions!

 

[Fishhead]

God forbid somebody will actually win in a casino.

Have been kicked out of no less than 6 casinos in my lifetime and in no cases was I doing anything wrong.

JOKE,
---FISH---

 

[Woody0]

Yes, our friends across the other street are bringing this lawsuit. The house advantage could even be displayed to the dealer who would be instructed to shuffle if it hit a certain point. It is clearly an illegal device that can be used to alter the outcome of the game.

If the NGCC had any guts they could order the casinos to display the output from this device, much as they do for past roulette numbers. Sadly I think it is a lost cause, like single deck 7-5 "blackjack".

 

[WildBill]

This goes beyond that Fish. They have plenty of tools to keep out counters and I won't argue with the casinos right to choose customers they don't want in the house. I just can't stand this though because it screws everyone over, even losers. And it can backfire on them. Some guy that has been faithfully losing at BJ for 20 years might have lost at one rate. Now he notices he is losing twice as fast, even though the game appears not to have changed. He might just decide not to play or cut back on his play, all because casino managers are insanely greedy these days. Instead of giving patrons bang for their buck, they just are out to take everything they can from the moment they step in the door. If everyone is fleecing the customers, they figure they might as well join in.

 

[Fezzik]

Dealers have been preferentially shuffling for 30 years also.

Single/Double Deck

Lots of Big cards appear. They deal to the bottom.

Lots of small cards. EARLY SHUFFLE!

Vegas advertises "We want you to win"

:lolBIG: HAHHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAA:lolBIG:

 

[Ronald]

Downtown is still a decent ballgame. 3/2 blackjack, double deck, good penetration. The strip and casinos like Palms and Rio are a joke though. When I'm counting cards to win money, I play downtown. When I play on the strip, I expect to lose. I play on the strip just for the atmosphere, and because on the strip I might sit next to a hot girl at the BJ tables who smells like vanilla. Downtown I am stuck sitting next to an old local woman who wears denture cream that smells like vanilla. So that's the difference.

 

[CharlieMaxwell]

Ronald,

Why don't you just buy some vanilla-scented candles and go over to the Crazy Horse strip joint. You would spend about the same amount of money, but you would enjoy yourself a lot more.

Charlie

 

[ChuckSims]

I don't know how the lawsuit can be successful. The casino will argue that the machine will tell the house when the player has the advantage. Thus a new deal will be in order. Any reasonable person knows when he plays a casino game the advantage is with the house. Card counters will now have no edge if the machine is put into place. Let the casinos continue to screw over their customers. Hopefully, they will go too far and the suckers will stop coming to Vegas.

 

[DavidMatthews]

I don't know how the lawsuit can be successful. The casino will argue that the machine will tell the house when the player has the advantage. Thus a new deal will be in order. Any reasonable person knows when he plays a casino game the advantage is with the house. Card counters will now have no edge if the machine is put into place. Let the casinos continue to screw over their customers. Hopefully, they will go too far and the suckers will stop coming to Vegas.

The difference is (or should be) that the device law outlawing persons from using a device to alter the odds of a game also applies to the casinos. It's an illegal device if they ever use it to affect the odds.

Now tell me that a floorperson looks over and sees some schmuck player (not a card counter) with two hands of $10k and it's showing the deck is full of 10s and Aces... you think he's going to let the dealer deal the next hand? No f-ing way. Shuffle it up, he'll say.

I wouldn't buy any stocks in the company behind MindPlay because I think it's going down... and it should... from a purely legal standpoint.

Either that, or the information should be displayed for all to see so everyone is working from the same information... player and casino.

If MindPlay is allowed to continue, it'll be a severe corruption of the integrity of the casino games. Vegas will no longer be a fair place to play.

 

[bulldog77]

I hate to be pessimistic but there just seems to be an endless supply of suckers in old USA. I thought with the explosion of new casinos in the U.S>(Indian casinos, riverboats, etc.) that 21 conditions would have greatly improved with greater competition but opposite has happened. For example, 5 years ago 8 deck and 6/5 didnt exist in Las Vegas. Now...
The corporations thinking I know is just make the house edge higher and higher and the only ones they seem to scaring away are competent card counters who they don't want there any way! Those counters and aware basic strategy players than concentrate on the fewer and fewer good games and they eventually worsen their conditions to compensate.
Other than a few places in LV and a few more in Reno (that cater mostly to smart locals) 21 seems a waste of time. Which is why I have gone from spending 2 weeks every 2 months in Nevada to where I haven't gone in a year and a half. With crummy BJ and wimpy sportsbooks it just gets hard to rationalize a cross-country trip that I used to really enjoy. I don't mine losing but I don't want to GIVE it away!
Sorry for rambling rant. Loved the article, Wild Bill.