Kan Dail
The casinos are widespread and constantly active. Providing an ability to play various games in the span of hours. There are plentiful issues a casino can run in especially in bigger casinos. One of these being card counters. An issue that’s rather old but one to be considered during card games. Let’s see how casinos deal with these people
Blackjack card counters
Card counting is an act of calculating whether house or the players have an upper hand in the current state of the game. The way they do so is by counting which cards have already been played from the deck, taking into account the ones they have, and ones that could reach them.
Card counting usually gets used in Blackjack and aims to improve your chances of winning by knowing whether the next card has higher chances of being high or low. Blackjack requires a player to get as close to the number 21 with the value of cards in their hand. In casinos, players play against the dealer rather than each other. This means that card counting can come in even handier.
By counting what has been dealt, it’s possible to somewhat guess the hand of the dealer. With that in mind, we can decide whether to be dealt another card or not. Overall, Blackjack is one of the best games to use card counting in.
Countermeasures
Card counting is a big issue for casinos as it gives far higher chances for players to win. In order to combat that, most casinos have developed strategies which help deal with it. Both strategies and countermeasures constantly change, so don’t expect to see all of them present below. These can vary heavily but we will go over some of the most popular ones.
Banning known card counters
More of a resolution than a precaution, casinos aim to make a database of the known card counters. Practicing the activities of card counting in that casino will probably get you banned. Even if you are only suspected of card counting, the casino will keep an eye on you. This system is made as a supplemental crutch to the others rather than a sole way of dealing with issues.
Facial-recognition software
This one flows into the other noted supplemental methods. By using facial-recognition software, casinos can cut down time needed to identify known Blackjack card counters. Instead providing quick evaluation of current playing clientele. Whoever looks at the camera and the results will be provided necessary details about where and who may be card counting. The further resolutions are either careful observation or kicking the person off the table.
Hiring third-party consultants
While the previous ones aim to deal with known card counters, hiring consultants will immediately identify card counting. There are a myriad of people who are capable of recognizing telltale signs of this activity, often on the account that they too know the skill. Either through playing or observing a camera feed, these consultants will get a better idea of who may or may not be cheating.
Lower deck penetration
In Blackjack, the term deck penetration refers to the amount of cards the dealer cuts off, in comparison to those dealt out. Casinos aim to reduce penetration as much as possible, because it gives more of an edge to the players.
In efforts to do so, they reshuffle cards and use other methods which could return the edge to the house. It’s one of the main ways of discouraging card counting. Similar tactics may also be included in online casinos like N1Casino.
Unfavorable rules
While the game of Blackjack is rather simple, the surrounding rules can get twisted to the casinos advantage. A lot of tables feature 6-to-5 natural Blackjack payouts. These increase the house edge by a bit in comparison to 3-to-2 payouts.
The dealers also get an ability to hit soft 17s while the aforementioned reduction of deck penetration often comes with constant reshuffling as a rule. Each individual rule gives only a slight edge to the house but coupled together the edge changes heavily.
Looking out for suspicious spreads
Betting different values is expected in any game. People think they have a good hand and are willing to capitalize on it while others simply edge those bets slightly as a bluff. Either way, it’s rather weird when somebody goes hard on one specific situation.
There’s never a completely certain moment in gambling so this person has to have achieved a much better edge. Card counting will do that, especially if you manage to count what the dealer will have. Any observant employee will quickly notice this as a giveaway of card counting.
Ban Wonging
Wonging is a type of card counting named after Stanford Wong. This type of card counting has you sit at the side of a table, counting the current state of the shoe and the possible chances of winning. If you see a favorable opportunity, you’d drop in mid-shoe.
The chances of winning are exceptionally high and you needn’t even spend the time losing smaller bets before an opportunity arises. The casinos nowadays usually stop this activity by forbidding people from entering mid-shoe. Most of the casinos will have signs put up which ban this activity. Those that don’t may also have clarifications within the casino itself or the tables.
There are many other activities one can partake in to reduce card counting but these are definitely the most popular ones. Especially because most of them cannot be avoided in any way and become part of the actual game which helps maintain the house edge.
Conclusion
Card counting poses a serious risk to the house due to the advantage it gives to gamblers. There is no safe bet but the edge card counting gives is brutal. To combat that, casinos have started implementing various countermeasures.
Among these you have simple activities like implementing rules that discourage counting to those which outright monitor potential counters. This all results in a better edge for the house and as a way to discourage even attempted card counting.