The majority of people who go to a casino go there to play and enjoy themselves. They don’t know if they are going to win or lose, and although a win is a great thing, for the most part they don’t really care – click to play poker. They go because they want to play, they have a budget to play with, and they are going to have some fun. Whether it’s slots, poker, blackjack, or anything else, they go to play fairly and they don’t ever consider cheating.
But there are people who have an entirely different motive for going to a casino. Rather than going there to have fun, they go there specifically to cheat. They will do whatever they can to ensure they get the upper hand when it comes to all kinds of games, and they do it knowing full well they are doing something wrong, and sometimes downright illegal.
When these people go to a casino with the intention of stealing from it (because that’s what cheating really is) it is important for casino staff, and possibly other players too, to be able to spot them. Here are some ways it can be done.
Can They Really Be High Rollers?
Unless a casino already knows a particular player, perhaps because they are rich and famous (and therefore recognisable) or because they have been playing at the casino for a while now, casino security are always going to be especially interested in anyone who comes in claiming to be a high roller. Many of these do actually have plenty of cash to be playing around with, but there are others who pretend to be wealthy in order to receive all the fabulous perks that a high roller will get, including free rooms, food, and access to the VIP gambling areas.
Security and dealers are going to be watching these people carefully. One method that is used is to see what happens when they lose. The best cheats are going to lose at some point to make their playing look more genuine, but they aren’t going to want to lose a lot of money in the process. So if someone only ever loses after they have made a small bet, and the amount they lose therefore won’t be very large, and they win on their big bets, and this pattern keeps occurring, it is likely they are up to something. It’s almost a clever ruse, but one that a seasoned security officer in a casino will see right through.
Distracting The Dealer
No dealer in a casino should ever be touched, and neither should they touch the players. This is a hard and fast rule, but one that a casino cheat will bypass so he or she can distract the dealer enough to do whatever it is they have to do. They might swap cards, for example, and do so because they have created a distraction. So of course, this behaviour is going to be suspicious right from the start, and dealers are going to be watching out very carefully if they feel they are being distracted.
Card Counting
Card counting is something you have probably heard of, but you might not quite understand how it all works. It’s not exactly cheating; you aren’t influencing the cards in any way, for example. Yet it is frowned upon, and if you’re caught doing it, you will more than likely be asked to leave the casino.
Card counting essentially means working out the likelihood of what card is going to come next in a game, and therefore it is used in blackjack above anything else. Although this counting is done in someone’s head, they can still be noticed when patterns start to form, and this is when security will step in.
