CASINOS AND CHEATING
Who Is Cheating Who?

by norton weisner

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Many people ask the question about casinos: do they cheat? The answer is that, although there have been and always will be cases of casino malpractice, the simple truth is that casinos don't need to cheat. They have a house edge, which means that they make money without cheating. Casinos in the United States combined earn an estimated $30 billion a year in profit from gambler loses, and the very high penalties for casino malpractice mean that in the modern gambling era it is extremely unlikely that a casino is cheating. Before the legalisation of casinos in Nevada in 1931, casinos cheating patrons was said to be widespread, but after legalisation casinos became carefully monitored and most if not all casino malpractices fell away.

A much better question is: do gamblers cheat? The answer to this question is a resounding yes. According to the estimates of one US gambling magazine, of the 150 million people who gamble in US casinos each year, there about 5000 serious professional cheats. Although this is proportionally very small (about 0.003% of all US casino gamblers), 5000 is quite a large number of cheaters, large enough to make cheating a very serious issue in the minds of casino owners. Moreover, many of this relatively small number of casino cheats are working on a large scale and cost the casino industry hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Consequently, cheating prevention has become a very big, very hi-tech business. Casinos throughout the land work together to provide each other with information and photos of suspected cheats. Hi-tech cameras line casino walls and ceilings and are able to recognize faces. Andy Anderson, one of the more famous people doing good business helping casinos catch cheaters, developed the The Gryphon 2000 which alerts him whenever a face is recognized. He himself is an ex-cheater, known in the business as a crossroader. Casinos also keep a database of known high rollers. Even if a gambler is not in the database of suspected criminals, if he starts betting high and winning big and is not a known big spender, the alarm bells ring and the experts begin to watch carefully for telltale signs of cheating. And if your face IS in the database of high spenders, you'll be recognized the moment you walk in the door and sent the prettiest hostess in the house!

The most common forms of cheating go back to the beginning of gambling. Adding chips after the event, or stealing chips. The use of fake dice. Dice scooting (throwing dice without the dice rolling). Marking cards. Using magnets. Card counting is not technically illegal although US gambling law gives casinos the right to expel and bar anyone caught doing it. In recent times, technological capability gave the casino cheats a temporary edge over the house, with the introduction of computers, optic fiber cameras, and counting devices. Casinos were playing catch-up for a long while but their superior spending power meant they finally began to win the race.

Although, as mentioned above, systematic corruption by the house is extremely unlikely in the modern era, there is still a fair amount of suspected independent corruption by individual croupiers and dealers. Examples include the removal of high cards from a deck of cards, or the so-called muscle memory of roulette attendants. They may be doing this in cooperation with a cheat on the other side of the table or just for fun or out of malice for a gambler who is having a good evening.

The latest chapter of the casino battle against cheaters involves hackers of online casinos. Hackers can steal credit cards, add money to their account, manipulate odds, and improve their own chances from the information they can gather.