Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000 | 10:53 a.m.
Las Vegas casinos have for decades waged war with the one group that can overcome the house advantage that built the city -- the so-called "card counter."
Now, a Las Vegas company claims it's marketing the equivalent of Waterloo in this infamous war -- a shuffling machine that makes card counting impossible.
By producing what is in effect an infinite deck, the machine removes the deck fluctuations inherent to the game of blackjack, and makes it impossible for card counters to make a score, since there's no way to tell when a deck will run "hot."
"You can count it, but it doesn't do you any good," said Brooke Dunn, vice president of marketing for Shuffle Master Inc., the company that invented and markets the shuffler, called "The King." "In our opinion, blackjack wasn't meant to be a skill game. It's a game of chance. The King makes it a game of chance."
Card counters agree the machine may not be possible to beat.
"If the King does what they purport it does, it would essentially put an end to card counting," said Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter and professional gambler. "Card counting is effectively rendered useless."
Card counting is a system based on keeping track of the amount of 10-value cards remaining in a deck by keeping mental score of cards as they're dealt. A deck "rich" in high-value cards favors the player, since it makes it more likely the dealer will bust. A "poor" deck, with few 10-value cards, makes a dealer bust far less likely and favors the house.
While a deck is rich in 10-value cards, the odds of winning actually favor a knowledgeable blackjack player, rather than the house. As a result, the card counter increases his or her bet while the deck is rich, and reduces it drastically during a poor deck. Since the card counter risks most of his money while the odds are in his favor, a skilled card counter can consistently win money at the game.
The King defeats this by constantly shuffling four decks while the game is in progress. Whenever a player busts, the cards are immediately swept into the machine before new cards are dealt. Theoretically, this means a player could receive a "bust card," and the very same card could be redealt to a player just a few seats down.
As a result, the deck never reaches the volatility levels of a traditional blackjack deck or shoe. The deck is always, in theory, "neutral" -- a balance of tens and other cards that keeps the deck perpetually in the house's favor.
Continuous shufflers are not something new to the casino industry. A competing product is distributed on the Strip by Las Vegas-based JNLU Inc., while a third product is marketed in Europe by a gaming supplier in Austria.
But Shuffle Master claims its shuffler is an improvement on past products by decreasing the amount of time it takes for used cards to be reshuffled into the deck -- a key element in reducing deck volatility even further. Once a card is dealt and put back into the King, the card can be returned to play within seven cards.
Shuffle Master is by far the largest producer of automatic shufflers for casinos, with company officials claiming a Nevada market share nearing 90 percent.
So confident are Shuffle Master officials in the power of their new shuffler that the company offered $100,000 to any counter who could prove they could devise a card counting system that would work with the King. The challenge ended May 31 without a successful challenger.
A second advantage to the shuffler, Dunn said, is the productivity boost it gives dealers. Rather than having to stop and shuffle periodically, the shuffler allows games to continue without a break, since cards are being constantly fed back into the machine.
This catches some players by surprise -- in one casino, Dunn said, a customer played for two hours before finally asking when the house was going to shuffle up.
"You don't notice it because the cards keep coming," Dunn said.
In field tests, this resulted in an average increase of 18 percent in hands dealt per hour, Dunn said.
"You could go higher, but there's a pace of the game you can't beat," Dunn said. "More hands per hour should relate to more income for the casino."
But Curtis believes the opposite may be true -- and said it's rumored that hold on blackjack tables that use the King may actually be lower than normal. One reason, he theorizes, is that poor card counters -- players who lose more money than they win -- are driven away from blackjack tables by the machine. By eliminating volatility, the machine also eliminates "negative decks" that favor the house -- and removes one of the situations where poor players can do the most damage to their bankroll.
"You may eliminate a few professional players, but if the vast majority are losing less, then these things are finished," Curtis said. "A lot of people contend that the greatest thing that ever happened to the casinos was the publication of (card-counting books).
"The whole idea that blackjack can be beaten is a myth in general for most people. People who come in with half-skills, the pseudo-counters, probably do themselves more harm than good."
Another problem, Curtis said, is that many players prefer playing against a traditional deck, rather than a continuous shuffler.
"The bigger problem is that some people just don't like playing against a machine in a table game," Curtis said. "That could be what hurts these things. There's a lot of questions on how the public will react."
But Dunn denies that the King hurts casinos' hold, saying hold has increased where the machines are installed. One reason, he said, is that players can bet on more hands per hour, providing more opportunities for the casino to benefit from the house advantage in blackjack.
But Dunn said even non-card-counters can hit the casino hard when a deck turns positive, simply by betting on instinct -- and that removing this opportunity saves the casino money.
"When you go into a positive deck, people tend to bet more money than with a negative deck," Dunn said. "Even if they're not aware of the count, they know they're winning. And when they're winning, they tend to bet more money.
"When you're hot, you're hot, and you wager more."
Whether the machine will ultimately be a success for Shuffle Master is unknown at this point. Since introducing the product in May, Shuffle Master has shipped more than 200 of the machines, and is now producing them at a rate of 200 per month, Dunn said. Many Strip casinos are now using them, Dunn said, but in test packages of just two to three machines.
Several models of continuous shufflers are currently being used at properties owned by MGM MIRAGE. Alan Feldman, spokesman for the company, said MGM MIRAGE is pleased with their performance -- but not, as most people might believe, because they detract card counting.
Instead, Feldman said positive customer reaction is the reason the company uses the machines.
"What this device really does is eliminate the breaks for shuffling, which we often hear from customers that they don't like," Feldman said. "We've been testing continuous shufflers for about a year, and customers have responded very favorably to it. If we choose to move forward with it, that would be the reason why."
Foiling card counting, Feldman said, just doesn't enter into play. In fact, Feldman said pit bosses are usually more occupied with trying to stop cheating and crime -- such as switching cards, changing bets and stealing chips -- than they are trying to catch card counters. However, he did add that the company's casinos do have the right to eject identified counters.
"Card counting is not that big of an issue," Feldman said. "Card counters most often fail miserably, and usually end up doing no better, and often worse than if they just played the game.
"(Cheating and stealing) take up more of our time than card counting."
Even if casinos start purchasing the machines in great numbers, no one believes the continuous shufflers will ever become the de facto shuffler for Strip blackjack games.
"Casinos will still offer single and double-deck for market position," Dunn said. "Continuous shufflers will take a big chunk of available tables to discourage counting and increase overall productivity, but it'll never be 100 percent."
And that, Curtis said, ensures that the card counter will never be extinct.
"You'll always find the smaller casinos will compete by not using the shufflers," Curtis said. "Why haven't single decks been taken out of the mix yet, if shoes are so much better for the casinos? It is a competitive point people will pick up.
"There will be opportunities to count cards for a long, long time."
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