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Casino Surveillance News Newsletter Training Announcements
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Skilled Blackjack Players Part III The Role of Surveillance By Jim Goding
Once policy has been set by senior management, then the handling of skilled players at blackjack becomes a matter of implementation of that policy by teamwork between Surveillance, Pit management, and in extreme cases, Security. Assuming that the casino has adopted a policy that requires that skilled players be barred from play at blackjack or handled in some other way, such as flat-betting, the role of Surveillance and Pit management can be broken down into these parts. 1. Detection of potential skilled players and teams 2. Verification that these individuals and/or teams are practicing the skills needed to successfully and consistently win at the game 3. Documentation of the facts, to safeguard the casino and its personnel both from potential lawsuits, and from errors which could affect public relations or bottom line. 4. Handling of players determined to be undesirable according to casino policy. 5. Enforcement of preventive policy, for certain forms of advantage play. Detection Detection of potential advantage players and skilled blackjack players and teams is best done by teamwork between Pit management and Surveillance. Surveillance gets its reports from the Pit of players with wide betting spreads, unusual hitting strategies, including variations from standard Basic Strategy, and unusual-seeming wins, or of players who show a consistent pattern of winning on successive visits to the casino, players who come in mid-shoe with large bets, high-level bettors who refuse to give a name, and so on. It should, in most casinos, then be left up to Surveillance to check out the play. It can become very obvious that a player’s action is being scrutinized when two or three pit bosses, the shift manager and the casino manager all are hovering about in the same end of the pit, with attention on a single game. It’s called “sweating the money,” and it does two things, both negative. Approximately one page of material has been deleted at this point. The entire article is now only available on a for-sale basis. I have to make a living too. For ordering this article or others, please visit the Publications Order page. This article is available as a part of a package, or as a part of the entire Casino Surveillance Operations Manual. Verification Once a potential player has been identified and reported to surveillance, it remains, in casinos where card counting is discouraged or simply not allowed, to verify the skills of the player. In most casinos, this should be left up to surveillance. It takes some time, uninterrupted, to see if a particular player continually makes betting and playing decisions that are completely consistent with card-counting strategies, and to see whether his money-management skills and self-discipline are sufficient to make him an undesirable player by the standards of the casino. Many players can count cards and make the betting and playing decisions needed. However, outside of team activity, few players are disciplined enough to maintain an advantage over the casino by the use of their skills, and win consistently. It is the teams and the occasional very skilled player that the casino does not want. The surveillance department has some advantages here. Approximately two pages of material have been deleted at this point. The entire article is now only available on a for-sale basis. I have to make a living too. For ordering this article or others, please visit the Publications Order page. This article is available as a part of a package, or as a part of the entire Casino Surveillance Operations Manual.
Prevention Prevention of certain forms of “advantage play,” such as hole-card play, key-card location and shuffle tracking, lies in devising and enforcing game-protection procedures and correct training for dealers and pit supervisors. In casinos where card-counting skills are discouraged or not allowed, prevention of this activity lies in making it unprofitable for would-be professional players to play in the casino. Approximately one-half page of material has been deleted at this point. The entire article is now only available on a for-sale basis. I have to make a living too. For ordering this article or others, please visit the Publications Order page. This article is available as a part of a package, or as a part of the entire Casino Surveillance Operations Manual. Copyright 2004 by Jim Goding. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2004 by Jim Goding. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized sale or distribution is a violation of law and of the proprietary rights of the author, and is actionable under law. Purchase this article through the following link.
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