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There is a general consensus among current blackjack writers that there is far less cheating in today’s casinos than there was years ago. Even though this is likely true, it still says nothing about how much cheating still takes place. Once a fully licensed and practicing blackjack dealer myself, now retired, I am well aware of the many ways a dishonest dealer can cheat for the house, for a player, or for himself. Also, knowing what I do about the underworld’s past activities, I would be very surprised to learn that its involvement in illegal gambling enterprises has ceased to exist altogether.
Cheating has existed as long as gambling itself. Organized crime exerted a strong influence upon gaming throughout North America long before Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo in Las Vegas, December 26, 1946. Some people believe that the “mob’s” control and illegal activities have virtually disappeared since the large syndicates took over the mega-casinos during the 1960s and 1970s. However, in a Rouge et Noir News interview published in early 1976, an organized crime associate is quoted as follows:
We have our people in key spots….the elements that were represented by previous owners are still active in Nevada casino gaming…. Blackjack provides one of our biggest and safest sources of income. We have trained card-counters who are “allowed” to play for large stakes without being barred…the decks don’t get shuffled up as often for our players, and house personnel don’t overreact to large increases in our bet size. The scam is so simple and effective that we’ve spawned a bevy of competitors. So many insiders now have working arrangements with card-counters that it has become necessary to bar unaffiliated counters to protect the bottom-line performance.
In this way, or with the help of a skilled “mechanic” (a cheating dealer), large amounts of money can be skimmed off a casino’s otherwise legitimate operations even without its owner-syndicate’s knowledge. Considering the many reported cases of underworld figures charged with or convicted of various illegal associations with prominent casino management personnel, there can be little doubt of the mob’s influence still being very much alive and well in many major casinos.
A dealer need not be a talented magician to cheat the players (or the house) out of hundreds of dollars per shift. The “glamour” of dealing blackjack wears off quickly, and it is understandable that many dealers are drawn into unlawful activities to supplement their meager incomes. Dealers can be coerced into skimming operations or into bilking ordinary players out of their bankrolls in order to increase casino revenues. They sometimes team up surreptitiously with players in order to “help” them leave the tables with their pockets bulging with chips, splitting up the profits later at an appropriate place and time. Wherever the ill-gotten loot goes, it comes from the unsuspecting playing public, since some casinos expect a certain “take” from each table, and dealers whose tables lose are more apt to be let go.
Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to spot a cheating dealer’s illegal moves, and even more difficult to prove. If you do suspect that a dealer may be doing more than the automaton’s job she was trained to do, there is little point in making a scene. Unless you receive an obviously incorrect payoff for a hand, just move on to an honest table.
This talk of possibly corrupt dealers and casino personnel is certainly not meant to discourage players from pursuing the game of blackjack.
First of all, you should realize that the vast majority of dealers and casino employees are completely trustworthy. (Some casinos have well-known and ruthlessly enforced policies designed to curb any unsavory activities, such as on-the-spot firing of all employees who happen to be working during a shift in which any swindling practices are discovered not just the guilty parties. This puts a lot more pressure on everyone concerned to make sure there is no thievery of any kind taking place.) After all, casinos don’t have to stoop to cheating methods in order to relieve most players of their money. It’s a generally known fact that most blackjack players don’t have a clue about how to win.
Following are five things you can do to protect yourself from unsafe games:
1. Choose young, inexperienced dealers. Beginning dealers are seldom cheats. The younger the dealer, the less likely he will be a crook. They simply don’t have the experience necessary to steal skillfully, nor the inclination to sanguinely pocket a few easy (albeit dishonest) dollars that could put their jobs and training in jeopardy. In fact, surveys have shown that young, good-looking female dealers are the ones most likely to allow you to walk away a winner from blackjack tables. (The reasoning behind this apparent fact is purely speculative, but it purports that pretty, young women dealers are less likely to be “mobbed up” and are usually more interested in attracting compliments and tips than they are in ripping off players.)
2. Play at tables where the players are happy; it’s likely to be a sign that they are winning money. This obvious clue that the game is honest is often overlooked. When you see large stacks of chips in front of other players, pull up a seat there yourself.
3. Tip the dealer occasionally. Dealers are not as apt to rip off a regular toker as a skinflint. Sometimes after getting a blackjack, play the “half-bonus” for the dealer. Even as little as a dollar or two bet for the dealer now and then will keep him more favorably disposed toward you. Remember that dealers are not just machines; they have feelings like everyone else. In any case, never be a whiner when you lose, or, even worse, blame the dealer for a poor card or a losing hand. If you commit this unforgivable faux pas, don’t be surprised if you “coincidentally” start receiving only bad draws.
4. Play shoe games. It is far more difficult to deal seconds, to stack six shuffled decks, or to perform other common cheating moves on a player (or for a confederate) from a shoe than it is from hand-held single- or double-deck games. (”Seconds” are cards which should be dealt after the next available card, but are dealt immediately since the dealer knows the very next card and is keeping it for himself or a confederate.)
5. Look for casinos equipped with blackjack-detecting devices. These little electronic eyes eliminate the need for dealers to look under T’s or Aces, thereby discouraging possible collusion between a dealer and a player.
Several Las Vegas casinos have been dragging their feet for many years regarding 4 and 5 above. Perhaps the “powers that be” would find it too difficult to steal money from their employers if only shoe games with no-peek devices were used.