Do Casinos Cheat?
Dear Mark,
I have always been a bit suspicious of casinos and especially
their ability to cheat players. Come clean, Mark. Do the casinos
tell the dealers to cheat the customer? Ron T.
If you follow my column regularly, Ron, you will notice my
commentary ordinarily puts me on the side of the player. With
machete in hand, I am always willing to slash through the
green felt jungle for my readers. Most would call me a casino
adversary/player advocate. Thank you. But in the case of a
casino cheating a player, Ron, I would be remiss if I didn't
say with 100 percent conviction that the casinos are in no
way out to cheat you.
There are two key reasons why casinos don't play the game
of deception. First, most casinos are publicly traded companies
on the NYSE not interested in exposing their gaming license
to loss with any inkling of cheating going on. Also, here
in Nevada, you won't find a more regulated industry chock-full
of rules that would close a casino down for defrauding the
public.
A second, if not even more significant reason, is the way
casinos reap their profits-paying players less than the true
odds. Meaning, every game offered to the player is mathematically
in the casino's favor. Example: When you flip a coin there
is a 50/50 chance of your winning. But instead of getting
even money for every dollar you wager, you are paid 99¢,
or 83¢ or maybe even 75¢. This in a nutshell is
how casinos operate their license to print money, paying you
less than even money on every bet you make.
Now, if every single wager placed in the casino is based on
that principle, why, Ron, would they ever want to swindle
you? That's not to say that a rogue employee on his own never
tries to manipulate the cards in the casino's favor. That
is why the casino manager watches the shift manager, who watches
the pit bosses, who watches the floorman, who watches the
dealers-with the eye in the sky (camera in the ceiling) watching
everybody. It doesn't take long for a dishonest employee to
be weeded out.
I would also note that in 17 years of casino employment, working
in seven different casinos, I have never been asked to do
even the slightest thing that borders on fraud. I have been
asked to speed up my hands per hour dealing blackjack or pick
up the pace on a crap game, but that's to get the math to
work in the casino's favor-never to cheat.
So, Ron, I would be more suspicious of the wagers you make,
not the casino. Let me ask you this: Are you getting back
75¢ (keno) for every dollar bet, or 99¢, (perfect
basic strategy in blackjack)?
Follow up: This past week I was deluged with calls
and e-mail about an investigative report by ABC-TV's PrimeTime
regarding slot machines in Nevada that are preprogrammed for
"near-miss" read-outs, which entice gamblers to
play longer. The theme of the discourse was "I knew all
along they were cheating us."
PrimeTime's main source; a former Nevada Gaming Control Board
computer whiz and convicted felon named Ron Harris, who prior
to sentencing found religion.
Sorry, but I'll stick with my biased conviction that because
casinos have the percentages working for them on each and
every slot, there is little chance they would conspire, in
this case with a slot manufacturer, to cheat a patron. All
pulls of the slot handle produce random results-albeit results
that, based on the slot pay table, generally create losers.
Besides, near-miss technology is not only illegal in Nevada,
but tampering with a computer chip can easily be detected
with the right equipment, even by a low-level computer nerd
like me. Chips are not only tested before leaving the factory
but randomly checked for integrity on the casino floor.
Coincidentally, another TV news magazine program, to which
I promised confidentiality for both the show's name and content,
wanted my opinion about an upcoming investigative report they
were doing regarding a highly sensitive casino issue. Because
my take on the subject matter wasn't the sensationalist spin
that would improve their ratings, my viewpoint will find it's
way to the cutting room's floor. Why should they use me? In
the gambling industry they can easily find someone with limited
credentials willing to say off camera or in silhouette, "Yeah,
that's the norm, happens all the time." Sounds very similar
to the PrimeTime investigative piece above.
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