Commentary/People like to gamble and it's a big business for casinos because they reap billions of dollars every year from those who love to gamble. There are gambling addicts who gamble every day of their lives and they spend every cent they make in casinos. I've actually known people who've become gambling addicts and they would do anything to get the money to gamble. They would disappear for days gambling and they would actually lose track of time and the days. I've seen them ruin their life and lose their families but they continued to gamble at any form of gaming they could until they lost every thing they had and also their families.
People are at casinos spending big bucks; and in a lot of cases, they cannot afford the money they're spending because it takes away from their necessities to provide for their families and themselves. Years ago when casinos where popular in a neighboring state many of those people would spend their entire earnings and then have "no" money for rent and their bare necessities.
Casinos do reap lots of money but there's always someone out there attempting to cheat them by using different methods to win. Yes, most gamblers know there are cameras trained on every table and they have employees who do nothing but watch out for suspicious people in their casinos.
There's always someone who is out there figuring a way to cheat the casino, and in many cases, they've become experts. George Joseph of Worldwide Casino Consulting is known in the business as a casino cheating expert adviser. Joseph estimates the casino industry loses tens of millions of dollars a year in scams.
These cheaters use many forms of cheating skills to pull off scams with the aid of high-tech devices and with age-old sleight-of-the hand tricks. There are stiff penalties for anyone who is convicted of cheating.
CNBC.com had a discussion with Joseph, who is also the author of "The 101 Most Asked Questions about Texas Hold'em and Poker cheating," listing ways people cheat casinos. The following are ways people do cheat casinos:
1. False Shuffles: This form of cheating requires the participation of the casino's dealer for it to work. Watch the dealer as he employs a false shuffle, which is supposed to look like a regular shuffle but secretly it leaves some cards in place. This allows players who are involved in the play conspiracy and who have been tracking the cards, to know which cards were not shuffled when dealt.
2. Roulette Past Posting: I've seen this performed before and it is as simple as placing chips on a winning number after the ball has dropped in the roulette wheel. Someone can distract the dealer and a player sneaks his chip down after the ball has dropped.
3. Hidden Camera Baccarat Scam: This is one I find would be very hard to do but I guess it does happen. It takes two people to pull off this cheat, a hidden camera is placed up the sleeve of the player and when the player cuts the deck they drag it over the top of the deck and this separates the cards, exposing, capturing, and recording the cards as an accomplice who is wearing an earpiece relays the card information to the player.
4. Card Switching: This has been used for many years to cheat according to Joseph. This means of cheating has moved from being a simple sleight-of-hand trick to using hidden "holdout" devices to cheat. Players use this device to hide a card up their sleeve and then they deposit it onto the table while removing and hiding cards from the table.
According to Joseph, Foxwoods Casino Resorts in Connecticut became a victim to this means of cheating in 2010 and they lost several hundred thousand dollars by cheaters who used this type holdout device to switch cards in midi-baccarat games.
5. Slot Machine Bill Validator Device: Cheating methods for slot machines have gotten more sophisticated in our society today because it now involves a small computer device to trick the bill validator. The computer device disguises a $1 bill, has two prongs that are inserted into the bill validator; once they are able to hit the contact point below the validator, the slot machine will read any bill that's inserted as a $100 bill.
There are newer devices that don't need another bill to make it work because they can just add credits once they hit the contact point in the slot machine.
I'm glad to report that casinos have caught onto this cheating method and the scam is now less common than it once was. The casinos have retrofitted their slot machines so that the devices won't work; this is according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
I must confess that I'm concerned about what too many casinos throughout the country will do to those who are already at a low income/middle income basis. Will casinos get all of their hard earned money and their families will be without a home or food?
Source:
http://www.nbc.com
