Whether it’s dice, slots, roulette or poker, everyone is hoping they can find a way to put the odds in their favor in the gaming room. A simple Google search will bring you all kinds of advice from how to throw the dice in craps to how to distract a dealer at a blackjack table. Most of those tips being proffered are pretty harmless to the casinos, usually giving people a false hope that they’ve found an edge.
On the other hand, because of the stakes, there are many others who push boundaries and actively work up new ways to cheat and, if able to not get caught, to win. It is gamers of this latter type, the cheats, that surveillance teams are on the lookout for, because they can be a threat.
The focus in this article will be on card games.
Cheating at poker and blackjack comes in a wide variety of styles. Card mechanics are those who use sleight of hand and manipulation. There are muckers who switch cards or conceal cards. A majority of cheats, perhaps as much as 75%, do so by means of placing large nearly invisible marks on the cards. This will be explained shortly. 15% of cheating involves sophisticated marking that requires optical devices. Finally, and this is what has alarmed today’s casinos, there are new, futuristic high-tech sensing devices and poker analyzers which if unchecked will continue to become more of a problem.
Catching cheaters who use high-tech methods has increasingly become a challenge to surveillance. The old ways of gaining an advantage at cards are slowly being replaced by cheaters using sophisticated optical devices such as contact lenses, eyeglasses, modified cameras, and poker analyzers. These optical readers are used to detect invisible inks, analyze poker hands and see near-infrared marks on cards.
Today’s surveillance expert is faced with the daunting task of trying to keep ahead of all of this technology.
When it comes to watching what goes on at a card game surveillance is no longer just about keeping a close eye out to catch players or dealers with card mechanic skills who are capable of performing special moves to control, switch or mark cards. Surveillance detectives must also learn to count cards. When catching a card counter the best defense is a good offense.
Complex computer programs have been designed today to track cards, chips and players, count cards, look for and single out suspect games etc. This is an important first step to catching high-tech cheating.
Investigators must develop a sixth sense that gives them the uncanny ability to recognize a cheater’s social habits, body language and manifold diversions. To top it all off they must be well-informed on all of the proper table procedures. The list of required skills goes on and on.
It takes genuine devotion and years of study for a surveillance detective to develop these skills. He/she must become a highly trained specialist.
Modern day high-tech cheaters are often the first to apply new discoveries to the gaming tables to gain an unfair advantage. As a result, technology has created a niche for a new breed of specialized surveillance expert.
High-tech cheaters no longer need to develop the skills of a card mechanic, count cards or do business with an “inside” employee of the casino to gain an advantage over the casino. The years of practice that it takes a card mechanic to master such skills as false shuffling, false dealing, switching cards (mucking) and developing teams to create diversions 메이저놀이터 while a deck or shoe is being switched is no longer necessary.
The fact is that technology has made it possible for anyone to become an instant cardsharp. The big question for surveillance professionals is “will you be ready?” Let’s take a look to see what can be done to help you to detect, prevent and defend your casino from becoming a target of high-tech cheaters.
The first step is to become aware of what high-tech threats are out there; that is the goal of this article Next, you will want to know what can be done to protect and prevent these systems from working in your casino.
Finally, you will need the proper training and equipment to detect these high-tech scams and catch the “would be” thieves before they ever leave the tables.
To get started it will help to narrow things down. Let’s begin by taking a look at some of the older high-tech systems that have been used in the past.