Dealers usually at heart of table game cheating

John Wilen

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 12:06 p.m.

Myriad are the ways a patron can cheat or create an advantage over the house in a table game.

But instances where crooked dealers use a false shuffle or honest dealers give a player an advantage by inadvertently revealing a single card are the most common, according to George Joseph, executive director of surveillance at Bally's hotel-casino.

Demonstrating his skills with cards and cheating techniques at a recent Casino Management Association seminar, Joseph counseled casino executives in the various ways they can prevent players from gaining an unfair advantage or just plain cheating at casino card games.

At the top of Joseph's list is the false shuffle, a scam where a dealer in league with one or more players purposely keeps certain cards in order while shuffling, giving his player buddies an opportunity to use their knowledge about the order of the cards to their advantage.

"I'm not here to tell you guys how to deal cards, I'm here to show you the tricks," said Joseph.

An accomplished dealer can shuffle cards in such a way that they look fully mixed, but do not change order, said Joseph. More commonly, a false shuffler will actually shuffle most of the deck while leaving some cards -- usually those on the bottom of the deck -- in order. When the dealers partner cuts the deck, the in-order cards end up on top, giving the players in the know an advantage for a certain number of hands.

Joseph said he has investigated 45 false shuffles in his career at Bally's, the Dunes hotel-casino and as a consultant to the industry.

The Las Vegas Hilton was once "whacked" for $170,000 on a false shuffle, said Joseph.

And shuffle cheating is certainly not limited to Bally's, he said.

"They destroyed the MGM poker room years ago with just this ... bottom retention," said Joseph.

The easiest way to catch a false shuffle is to watch surveillance tape, he said. It's unrealistic to expect your floor managers to catch a false shuffle, said Joseph.

"We put our floor people in a position where they have to lie to us," by saying they saw shuffles they couldn't possibly have seen, said Joseph.

In the Hilton case, Joseph busted the dealer by watching the surveillance tape. Looking between the dealers hands, Joseph saw four logos on the back of a deck, not the three printed on the back of each card. That told him the dealer was holding about 30 cards slightly to one side of the deck, keeping them in order.

It makes more sense to have the floor people alert surveillance that a large sum has just been awarded, or that some sort of hanky-panky appears to be afoot. Then, surveillance can quickly review tape of the shuffle and deal before the winning patron leaves the casino, said Joseph.

"When the (bet) changes and your people don't see the shuffle they've got to say something," said Joseph.

Indeed, any cheater has to give themselves away at some point, he said. No cheater will bet lots of money on hands he knows he is going to lose. A cheater gives him or herself away by changing the bet drastically and suddenly, and then winning.

"Any time you have an easy edge, you have to tell us," said Joseph.

That goes for cheaters who work with crooked dealers as well as those who use an edge gained through an inadvertent mistake by an honest dealer, he said.

Honest dealers can give away a hand a number of ways, said Joseph. A dealer who holds the deck too high can expose the bottom card. An accomplished cheater who knows the bottom card can "knuckle-cut" the deck -- meaning cut the deck the width of a finger from the bottom. Knowing in advance the approximate number of cards in a finger-width, that player will then know the outcome of a future hand, allowing them to bet and win a huge amount.

If the player is unsure exactly where that card lies, they can "spread" their play about the time the card comes up, meaning play several hands at once to ensure they get the known card.

To prevent giving the bottom card away, cards should be "stripped" on the table, and the bottom card should be protected when the deck is handed to a player for cutting. The best method of dealing is to hold cards at a 45-degree angle, about half way between the dealers chest and the table, said Joseph. A dealer should hold his or her hands together as if handcuffed, he said.

Accomplished card players can also determine the approximate order shuffled cards will end up in from decks exposed face-up on a gaming table prior to play. Experts can tell where good and bad cards will wind up, even after a lengthy shuffle, said Joseph.

"Anytime the cards are in order, you can take advantage of the house or the customer," said Joseph.

He counsels casinos not to expose cards in a face-up fan on empty tables.

Patrons can't take advantage every time they learn a card, Joseph said.

"Does it mean something every time? No," said Joseph.

But knowing single card does increase a player's odds. He recounted on instance in which a Bally's player learned where a card was, and then played 72 hands at $25 a hand before beating the house for $20,000 on the hand he knew was coming.

The best way to beat cheaters is to have strong procedures, said Joseph. Make all dealers follow the same rules, rules designed to minimize the ability of players to get an unfair advantage by seeing a card.

"A procedure is always stronger than a move," said Joseph.

Other ways casinos can lose money involve employee error, such as the dealer who tries to remove all the cards from a box except for the jokers, and in the process leaves one playing card behind. Casinos caught with too few cards in play have to return bets, he noted.

One procedure every casino should follow is to check the surveillance tape on a suspicious win immediately. Joseph noted that casinos don't pay players cash, they are paid chips. That gives a surveillance team time to check the tape before the player cashes out and leaves.

Once the player leaves, Joseph said, its too late to get the money back.