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During my time in gaming both before and after I worked in casinos then I have heard of numerous cheating attempts with most of them being blatant silly attempts that were doomed to failure and probably did. But one such case that I heard about but never found out if this actually came to fruition involved placing an invisible resin type substance into certain numbers of a roulette wheel.

This substance hardened like varnish but was clear to the naked eye. What this meant was that the substance could be applied to certain numbers without it being visible. But the peculiar characteristics of this substance were such that it recorded drastically different bounce to the other non applied numbers.

So if you applied it to the red numbers and not the black numbers then it would be perfectly possible that the ball would stand a far greater chance of coming to rest in one or the other due to the differences in bounce. The only problem was in how to apply this substance to a roulette wheel undetected. This would almost certainly need to be done from the inside from someone who not only worked there but who worked after hours or who had access to not only the casino but also the CCTV cameras as well.

There are several people who work inside all casinos who have this sort of function from general managers to managers to security staff and receptionists. So it is possible to have an inside job done on a casino. If you can overcome these two factors of getting the substance and then someone working on the inside then a casino would be very vulnerable to being hit in this way.

There has always been one huge Achilles Heel with casinos when it comes to security and this is to do with staff collusion and inside assists. In this aspect then it is no different to online poker sites and the now famous “super user” accounts. At the end of the day, staff at many live casinos feel under paid or actually are under paid. So they above anyone else have the incentive to cheat and collude with punters.

A few years ago I was privy to inside information at the time about a team of Chinese cheats in London who were operating using hidden CCTV cameras. These people were eventually caught but the word on the inside was that these people took far more money than was revealed or that the casinos were aware of.

I feel that this is where the casinos are vulnerable; there is always a problem with regards the casinos coming face to face with highly intelligent and creative people. Casinos have gone more and more high-tech over the past few years and I feel that this has sort of protected them from the old time cheats of a few years ago. However it has also left them vulnerable to a whole new army of high-tech cheats who will be attracted to casinos like moths to a light because of the money that is on offer.

As always the really sophisticated cheats are one step ahead and always will be and the casinos are always playing catch up to these people. Only when they have been taken for a large amount of money do they then adjust and learn the new techniques.

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In one of my recent posts I touched on the subject of cheating in casino stud poker. Usually when there are big odds to be found then these games tend to attract the cheats. This has nothing to do with the house edge but the actual pay-offs that are obtained when you can get away with a cheating move in this form of casino gambling.

The best game for this is roulette where you don’t have to get away with many moves to walk away with a substantial pay-off. The 35-1 and 17-1 top pay-offs are like beacons to cheats. But in CSP too then you can get big pay-offs.

50-1 for a straight flush and 20-1 for quads are big odds as is the generally offered 8-1 for a full-house. Of course unlike on roulette, big hands get noticed on CSP and you need to remember one very important thing, casinos can and will delay payment until CCTV has been checked and it would take a very naive casino to blindly pay a huge bet on a straight flush and there are not many naive casino bosses around.

I have known some pretty poor shift managers in my time but never a General Manager. Card marking is another threat to casinos although in my experience, the cards are not checked well enough. As is the case, small casinos with little action and small turnover can be got at because they don’t perceive any threat from punters playing for small amounts.

As usual collusion is yet another problem and a dealer can easily pay an empty box for its ante when they have no hand and then claim a mistake even when they got caught or if the supervisor spotted it.

Casino bosses are more than aware of collusion incidents and the CCTV and surveillance is as much for the staff as it is for the punters.

See you soon

Carl

Several hundred years ago, the Caribbean was the centre for piracy on the high seas when people like Blackbeard was feared all around that area. The word “Caribbean” also applies to the casino version of poker as well where the players get dealt five cards that have to beat those of the dealer.

I explained a little about how this game worked yesterday but there are numerous poker cheating moves that are available on this game in live play. Of course if you read any poker material on cheating then a fair number of the moves would involve the dealer.

In the case of CSP then this does not apply obviously as the dealer is working for the casino and despite the thoughts of some, casinos do not cheat. They have no reason to in the overwhelming number of cases so lets put that particular view to bed right now and move on.

But……one such move that is cheating and that is for players to inform other players of their cards. This would certainly not be allowed in real poker but I have worked in several casinos where the players were allowed to blatantly look at each others cards.

Let us say that a table full of CSP players discussed their hands or had a series of hidden signals to determine certain cards. Each player gets dealt five cards and in those thirty five cards that were dealt to the players, all four kings were out and three of the aces.

The dealer had an ace showing, now not only do the players know that the dealer cannot make a qualifying A-K hand to beat their non-pair hands, they also know that the dealer cannot make a pair of aces. This then means that to qualify then they must make a pair out of their remaining unseen four cards and not five.

This is far more difficult to do so in this instance the players could play whatever hands they had. This is one form of cheating but I will be expanding on other forms in later posts.

See you soon

Carl

I watched a YouTube video the other day taken from the program “The Real Hustle” in which they performed some famous old blackjack cheating moves. What made me chuckle about the video was that it was clearly a made up situation. They were inside an English casino using coloured roulette chips on a blackjack table.

Also the moves were done based on the American blackjack version where the player gets to hold the cards. This isn’t the case in England where the player simply cannot touch the cards at all once they have been dealt. Still, they do make for entertaining programs. There are still numerous cheating moves available though despite the fact that the players cannot touch the cards.

This may surprise a few readers but over the past twenty years, ten of which were actually working in that job then you become aware of many different types of cheating move. Certain moves become possible based on the configuration of the dealer and the inspector. Quite often they will have a second game to watch. In some casinos that game may even be Casino Stud Poker so the inspectors attention will always be more focused on that table over the other blackjack table.

This is rightly so because just as in the program itself, this is a game where the players do get to hold the cards so many more cheating moves become possible based on that alone. But the reason why many cheats get caught is simply because of three things. Firstly then do not understand the psychology of the casino personnel that they are going up against.

Secondly they bet too big and in a way that brings attention up to a much higher level on behalf of the staff and management. Lastly, the cheats perform the moves at the wrong times and in the wrong locations. But it is this fatal lack of understanding with regards to casino staff psychology that gets them caught….and you thought that I only knew how to deal the games and play blackjack did you

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

It isn’t just roulette where cheating takes place inside a casino, it is on all games. Blackjack is certainly no different and there are many cheating moves available even though in the UK, the players cannot physically touch the cards. In many situations, the lethargy and the indifference of gaming staff make many moves possible.

The way that the dealer deals the game opens up many moves. One such move is to spot the next card out of the shoe on the next round of play. Quite often this is accidentally revealed by certain dealers who apply too much pressure to the centre of the card.

Fast dealers tend to do this or male dealers who are far too rough with the cards. It is difficult to see certain types of cards because of the white surfaces but picture cards can be visible sometimes. But taking advantage of this move is not cheating in any way shape or form. It is no different to a poker player who accidentally reveals his hand to a fellow player.

The player who has glimpsed those cards certainly has no duty to inform the player that they are revealing their cards. It is exactly the same with blackjack. Also, this is something that the inspector cannot spot from their position so they cannot inform the dealer to correct it anyway.

Plus,at the end of the day….inspectors are nothing more than promoted dealers so they suffer from the same indifference and lethargy that the dealers do. Plus they are elevated and looking down on the table either from an elevated chair or from a standing position so they simply cannot see this. In fact the punters cannot see this either except one of them…..the player who is active on first base or first box.

Most dealers do not expose cards in this way but if you find one that does then you can create very profitable opportunities here. When you factor in that the knowledge that when your first card will be a ten value card then the edge to the player of around 13%

Now that’s why these moves can be so damn good,

see you soon

Carl “The Dean” Sampson – author of Princes of Darkness : The World of Highstakes Blackjack

Visited a quaint little casino last night, my partner was out with a couple of female friends and rather than stay in and do my work, I had some business to attend to so I had a little casino trip with a friend who signed me in. They had a blackjack hand dealt game. These are getting rare now in the UK. I had about £500 on me and was drawn to the game like a moth to a light.

I should not have allowed this to happen because you cannot do much with £500 unless you are using advantage play techniques. Unfortunately last night I had proficient dealers all through the night and no one ever made an error.

I played blacklack and counted and in seven shoes, the count never rose high enough for a big bet to go out. I couldn’t get too much on the table in this casino without getting noticed. Anyway after about two hours of this I became bored and drifted across to roulette minus about £50. I had been watching a certain dealer and when they came back from their break, I knew that they would be on the next table for at least ninety minutes or so.

So I casually drifted across and took a seat which was the only one left as it was quite busy. Fortunately the seat was near the wheel so I could get to grips with his spin. It was a usual low profile Huxley wheel but the ball composition was perfect and so was his wheel speed. The inspector didn’t seem to care and spent ages chatting to the female dealer on the other table.

I already had about £100 in five pound chips in my pocket and bet five and the neighbours for £5 (£25 bet)……..bullseye….no 5. Roulette has been going so well that I don’t know why I bother playing blackack. So this one spin put me over £100 up for the night. On the next spin I hit him again for another £5 on the number for what was a £155 in profit. This put me at about £260 ahead in minutes since switching from blackjack.

Then the dealer started messing with his wheel speed, I think he either sensed that he would get into bother if he didn’t or that I was reading him. I had two losing bets that came nowhere near their target and finished the session over £200 ahead. I would like to report a happy ending but I owed my partner £250 from a few weeks ago……oh well.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson author of Princes of Darkness :The World of Highstakes Blackjack and Killer Roulette

Casino’s attract cheats and thieves, this is a fact. If you were to assess and then learn how a pick pocket operates for example then you would be amazed to see that a busy casino affords them all of the necessary advantages. There are people with money for a start, then there are people in large numbers and in close proximity, people who are aroused and focused on something else, we also have ease of access and get away.

The only draw back for these guys is that everything is on CCTV and if they get caught or seen then the casino can often know their name. But thats just it, how hard would it be to join a casino as a member using a fake name? If a punter loses thier wallet or purse then the natural thought would be that they had lost it or left it somewhere, nobody suspects that it has been lifted……when a purse or a wallet is “secure” inside your pocket or inside pocket or handbag then the thought of having it lifted never occurs to anyone.

So the CCTV isn’t checked and all that gets done about it is that the management tell the victim that they will keep an eye out and it may also be announced over the tannoy that someone has lost a purse or wallet. But the victim immediately in their own mind writes this off as no one expects the majority of people to hand stuff of that nature in.

In the overwhelming number of cases, the victim is left thinking that they have lost the purse or wallet and not that it has been taken from them. I once had a demonstration given to me by a professional pickpocket and I couldn’t even detect that he had taken my wallet. Apparently it is thin people who are targeted with regards to lifting wallets from back pockets as there is little resistence between the wallet and the backside.

It was a serious education into this dark art and something that I will never forget. He also told me how many pick pockets work nights for the simple reason being that the pubs and clubs are even more crowded and when people have had a few drinks, they are easy prey.

So beware the next time you set foot inside a casino because these people are out there lurking and they are very good at what they do and you can take that from me.

Sleep tight

Carl “The Dean” Sampson