The Playing 21 Blackjack Program -- Cheating By Players

Cheating By Players
“Temptation”

Are You The Minority?

It is believed that everyone cheats in one way or another. Many con artists and hustlers think that those who don’t cheat are the real suckers. Obviously, if you have ever seen the security room of a casino, they think that a lot of people try to cheat as well. Besides taking your money, casinos are at the top of their game when it comes to security. It is said that one cannot go anywhere within a block of the Las Vegas Strip, without being able to be seen on camera. That for some may be a scary thought now.

A word of warning for the cheaters; the Eye in the Sky watches your every move. Players will try anything to cheat the casinos, and apparently other players in the casinos as well. It is most enjoyable to watch the action of cheaters. Television has brought it to our living room time and time again, showing how skilled these cheaters truly are. Scams can involve entire teams of people, on the inside and out. Although we are concerned with cheating as a whole, the objective of this is to make you more cautious when you are in casinos. Be leery of the other players at the table. The person sitting next to you all night is as likely to be the one who cheats you over as the person who is walking by. Remember, some people cheat in teams. The truth is that it happens all the time, and it is very sad when it does, for usually the innocent are preyed upon.

Blackjack may not be the game subject to the most cheating, but many players have tried their best over the years to take the casinos. It should be noted that Card Counting is not an illegal activity, but casinos have a response for this too. Casinos are private establishments, and they claim they reserve the right to kick you off their premises whenever they decide. So, instead of breaking the law, they just ban you. This isn’t something which should frighten you. Casinos compete with each other for your money. If they don’t want your money, someone else will gladly try and take it.

The most common form of cheating usually involves a player trying to mark the cards in a way to determine when it comes back around. For this reason, you’ll notice most casinos will not let you where sun glasses. In the past, in the Blackjack games where the players can handle the cards, cheaters placed an invisible mark, only visible by their “special” glasses or contact lenses to accomplish their task. Others have added or palmed cards, changing their hand. This type of cheating is difficult and mostly a thing of the past, but it still gets attempted. Players will also try and add to their wager if they have a wining hand, or take from it if they have a losing hand. Again, these cheats are difficult, but they are some of the more common methods of cheating players use.

Something quite common and very simple is when Dealers pay a losing hand. Even when all players at the table witness it, it doesn’t appear as anything more than an accident. One night I saw the dealer pay a losing hand 3 times, and once, and this is true, their was ONLY a bet in the square and no cards. That is when I knew this was a great table for the players because the dealer was totally sleeping. Think about this simple form of cheating. The Dealer has a 5 card 21 and says, “Dealer Busts”. Players are thinking to themselves, “What?”. Everyone gets paid quickly and the dealer sweeps up all the cards. This is an example where the dealer and one player are working together and just cheated the casino. This player might have had 12, and was set to lose his $50, and now pulls back $100 he shouldn’t have. If the dealer gets caught, it appears to be a mistake. This is common, and is very hard to detect.

I have seen this same mistake-like scam at a roulette table. Again, was it truly a mistake? The ball falls in number 30, and no one is on 30. The dealer said, “32 Red”, and half the table had money, including one guy with $25 on 32. Everyone was dumbfounded, because no one was on 30, but nobody said a word. Was it a mistake, or a clever $875 cheat. It was so shocking you wonder how often this occurs. The pit bosses don’t bother coming down each and every time and verifying every ball, or every payout. When it gets noted, it clearly seems an innocent mistake. So imagine how many real scams actually must go on, mistakes aside. It is no wonder that the casinos are truly paranoid about these kinds of things. A dealer who makes one “mistake” like this a month in a busy casino would be hard to monitor. So you can imagine what the casinos are up against. It is a serious problem.

Casinos learn from these cheaters and things are invented and implemented so they can be avoided. Everyone can relate to the “Peekers” found on the Blackjack tables now. The dealer slides in their cards with an Ace or Face up to determine if their hand is a Blackjack. This simple technique no only speeds up the game, but now the dealer never looks at the hole card. If the dealer would look at it, someone across the room behind them could signal over what the card might be.

Much more common was the dealer who would “Tell”, by accident or otherwise what the card was. I have seen many guys tip the dealers at these games, and the dealer wouldn’t really disguise it too much, for when they got to that players hand, they already knew the player needed a hit. The dealer would tell the little old lady, “17 don’t beat 19”. It’s funny when players don’t understand this, and the dealer does it over and over again. Even just a subtle pause, or an “Are You Sure”, is enough. Many times, this is the dealer not cheating so to speak, but working his tips, to increase his paycheck. So as problem areas arise, the industry invents ways to overcome these cheats.

One of my favorite stories involved the players who were buying $1 chips from one casino, and moving them to another, where they would cash them in. In transit, they were replacing the center sticker with fake ones from the other casino. They were buying the chips for $1, and selling them for $25 to the other casino. Apparently all was well until one of the sticker inserts fell off, revealing the scam.

So although entire teams and systems using computers and trucks in the parking lots have been set up to cheat the casinos, they are most vulnerable from the simplest methods of cheating. Although the long slow drive into the desert night may be a thing of the past, casinos still have zero tolerance on cheats. If you get caught you can expect something harsh. We don’t recommend cheating to any degree. There is no need to ruin your life over a few bucks. Have fun, play to win, but play fair.

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