Anyone who has ever played at a casino has thought about cheating. That’s the thing about morality and ethics. Not just in a casino but in life in general, a bad thought eventually crosses your mind every once in a while, – you just don’t do it! Still, this always results in an interesting question – if you were to do it, how would you do it? Can you cheat in casinos and how? How have others done it in the past? So, to satisfy your curiosity, here are a few things you should know on this subject matter.
False Shuffle
The main reason why card games are so prone to cheating is that there’s far more human agency than in other games (like roulette). Sure, you can watch at another person’s hands while shuffling but if the dealer is skillful enough, a false shuffle can look like a real one. One group known as Tran Organization managed to pickpocket $7 million by false shuffling.
Keep in mind that false shuffling may seem difficult to spot, but trained professionals will have an easy job recognizing it. How hard it is to detect depends mostly on your shuffling skill, which means that, to come even close to being hard to detect, you need to develop your motor abilities.
There are also so many different ways to falsely shuffle cards. The general division is on in-the-hands false shuffles and on-the-table false shuffles. Even here, you have so many different variations. In-the-hands false shuffles can be false overhand shuffles, false haymow shuffles, and false in-the-hands riffle shuffles.
Past Posting
One of the biggest problems with past posting is that it takes an incredible amount of attention for one to simultaneously watch the ball and the board. This is why surveillance and an extended crew are so necessary. The way it works is quite simple – in roulette, all you need to do is not get noticed as you place the bet after the ball has already landed.
The problem is that the motion of placing a bet is not always as obvious. Sometimes, all that a player needs to do is move their chips by a couple of inches to move their bet across the field. Moreover, this is usually done in pairs. This way, one player distracts the dealer while the other dealer replaces the chips (or moves them).
Keep in mind that there’s also a risk of several people doing so simultaneously (all working within the same crew). So, even if one of them gets caught, the rest can avoid detection.
Using Magnets on Slot Machines
In the past, the way to cheat at slot machines was to use a magnet. So, how to cheat a slot machine with a magnet? According to AskGamblers, it would be impossible to cheat a slot machine using a magnet today because the outcomes of every game are determined by the random number generator.
Now, keep in mind that this is not the only way in which people have tried to cheat on slot machines. Namely, there are other cheating devices, some developed to tamper with the slot machine’s electronics. Then, there are coin cheating, cell phone cheating, as well as software and hardware malfunction cheats (for modern devices).
Card Switching
Card switching is a simple, yet risky, form of cheating in a casino. This is also a technique that gave us the “ace in the sleeve” analogy. The way it works is simple – you put a card in your sleeve and replace one of your (weaker) cards with it. The biggest problem with this method is that it’s practiced even by some of the greatest gamblers in some of the most prestigious casinos in the world.
Also, this is illegal and, when caught, can be charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and theft. In other words, if caught, you could spend months in prison.
Since it’s so simple (and so iconic), the majority of people deciding to cheat will choose this path. After all, pulling something out of your sleeve is far simpler than false shuffling. Especially if you use a “holdout” device to help you, noticing this trick might be incredibly difficult. Still, a proper technique, the right distraction, and good timing are quite hard to accomplish.
Card Counting
The reason why we put this last is due to the fact that it’s not cheating in a traditional sense. These are the people who are trying to gain an advantage while playing. The problem is that “advantage” makes a world of difference in a luck-based game.
If discovered, you’ll be asked to leave the property. You may even be barred and prohibited from returning.
Counting cards requires an incredible memory and quite a bit of one’s brain power. The problem is that not all people rely on their memory. Some people use a device for such a thing, which is cheating in any possible sense of the word and, as such, highly illegal. In Vegas, using electronic machines to count cards could even get you arrested.
Wrap Up
In the end, the question is not whether or not you can cheat – of course you can’t. The question is should you do it? Now, from the moral and ethical standpoints, the answer is no but even when it comes to the practicality of it all, things are quite a clear cut. Facing prison time, prosecution, getting blacklisted from a casino, and ruining your reputation is usually not worth the money you could make this way.
More importantly, chances are that you won’t get away with it. You see, casino surveillance is quite sophisticated and dealers/security guards are all trained professionals. So, the chances of being able to pull this off are not very realistic.
To make the long story short – it’s possible but by no means worth it.