Casino Countermeasures

The casino discourages winners, and especially winners who are card counters, and they'll take whatever measure is necessary, short of cheating, to harass and beat them.

I leave out cheating because, despite what several writers have written of casino cheating, it's been my experience that casinos won't resort to this measure because they have too much to lose. For one thing, a license worth millions of dollars can be forfeited if cheating is discovered by Gaming Commission investigators.

When a player has an endless run of bad luck, it may appear that he's being cheated, but that's not really the case. I used to spend hours practicing the game, dealing out hands to myself, acting as both the player and the dealer. There have been times when I lost so many hands that if I didn't know I was dealing to myself, I could swear I was being cheated.

Sometimes, as dealer, I would hit four or five hands in a row, and make a stiff hand into a solid twenty-one. It was terrible for the player in that imaginary game, but the cards just ran badly and there was nothing that could be done.

If you play long enough, you'll run into incredible strings of bad luck. You'll have a very favorable count and watch helplessly as the dealer draws the last 5 in the deck to form a 21 out of a worthless 16 hand. It happens all the time, and a player must expect bad luck as well as good luck. The important thing to remember is this: Luck evens itself out, but skill remains a constant. That's a principle an astute player should live by.

The casino discourages winners

steps the player

dealer shuffled up the cards

the floorman conferred