Game Protection & Cheating

Cheating can be reduced by employing "proper procedure" - certain standardized ways of shuffling
cards, dealing cards, storing, retrieving, and opening new decks of cards.

Most casinos are obliged to have an extensive array of security cameras and recorders which monitor
and record all the action in a casino, which can be used to resolve some disputes. Some casinos use
facial recognition software to detect known cheats and criminals.

The correct training programs should investigate the possible cheating scenarios which normally do not
take place in casinos. If a game is not really performed in a standard way by a dealer for a long time,
then there is a chance of cheating. The first and the most crucial step in game protection is always
procedure which should then be followed with surveillance to ensure that everything goes according to
the plan.

One of the best ways to ensure safety and game protection in casinos are still informants when it comes
to insider actions and employee theft. In today's casinos though, insider jobs are quite uncommon to
come across.

Over the last few years, the gaming industry and the casinos have grown quite rapidly. With this growth,
the need for trained and qualified personnel has grown immensely. Casinos need employees who
understand the concepts of casino security issues and table game protection and can detect fraud and
cheating, as the most possible casino crimes. This need is being dealt with by training the table game
supervisors and surveillance staff on how to protect the table games better.

The training efforts had been almost non-existent recently and, in fact, were not even needed.
However, things have changed today for casinos. Training is given today to casino staff members on
game protection methods, advantage play issues and on basic game process.

However, most trainers in the field are selling a training mode which is based solely on cheating and
game protection. Also, most trainers train the casino staff members by installing a fear in them and by
putting emphasis on large scale elaborate cheating methods which are very miniscule. This results in the
staff members looking for signs and things that do not even exist. Most importantly, for table games, it
is all about accountability and procedure.

Thorough and complete understanding of the casino game process, the equipment and cheating moves,
the possible cheating moves used when the procedure is not right game protection will prevent
cheating. Complete attention is to be paid to the operation of the game and to the procedural
compliance and the accountability of the casino supervisory staff.

Casino security refers to the measures that are taken at casinos to protect the establishment's money,
property, and patrons. The security protects the casino and its customers from violent crime, theft, and
other inappropriate behavior. Given the copious amounts of currency that are handled within a casino,
the temptation exists for both customers and staff to commit crimes.

Over the years there has been a series of cheating and fraud in casinos that require the casino to
provide a fair and safe environment for its customers. Casinos require a plan for protecting their casinos
from illegal activity.
 Precautions have been made for advantage play where surveillance and training are used to protect the
games from callous mistakes. There are standards for the dealer to follow using the proper procedure in
protecting their game from cheaters stealing at the table. There are regulations that the casinos follow
to prevent collusion on the games. Casinos are required to have a minimum and maximum bet
allowance for their customers. Customers have a time limit of playing at the tables. Precautions are
made to prevent the addicted gambler from betting or winning too much.

Casinos train their dealers to watch for cheaters. Dealers are to notify their supervisor if anything
unusual happens at their table. Dealers can detect card counters and prevent customers from aggregate
betting frauds. Whenever a player is betting aggressively it is unusual. The dealer can prevent card
counting by penetration of the deck. The dealer can do a triple shuffle to mix the cards so that card
counting can be prevented.

The eye in the sky can detect fraudulent behavior. There are technical devices used to detect daubing
or marking of cards. Modern technology is used when cards are marked by inferred light. Inferred light
will show that. Anything unusual where the player is winning too much, the dealer is aware. The dealer
will notify surveillance and surveillance will run back the surveillance tape to detect cheating. Anything
unusual such as capping bets and past posting can be detected by surveillance.

Slot machines can detect illegal activity. Customers can use slugs and other devices to steal coins or
money from a slot machine. Casinos have developed technology used to prevent customers from using
slugs.

When it comes to table games, it is all about the dealers following the correct procedures and the
supervisors watching the tables. If all the procedures which are set are followed and are intact, the
cheating techniques cannot take place. However, Eye in the sky system which is so widely being used in
casinos today and is emphasized on is a way to help the casino staff and is also of utmost importance.

The correct training programs should investigate the possible cheating scenarios which normally do
take place in casinos. If game is not really performed in a standard way by a dealer for a long time, then
there is a chance of cheating. The first and the most major step in game protection is always procedure
which should then be followed with surveillance to ensure that everything goes according to the plan.

One of the best ways to ensure safety and game protection in casinos are still informants when it comes
to insider actions and employee theft. In today's casinos though, insider jobs are quite uncommon to
come across.

The casinos are required to act upon preventing any suspicious behavior on their game. Dealers are
asked to report unusual behavior. In Blackjack, the customer may be suspicious of exchanging cards. The
casino may place their logo on the cards to prevent exchanging of cards from other places. Customers
are always required to keep their hands in view. Casinos will always allow the customers to use one
hand on the cards to avoid switching or daubing cards. In Craps the player always must keep their hands
in view to avoid switching dice. Dealers are always required to keep their hands above the table in view
during the game.

With the proper measurements to protect their customers, casinos can prevent crime, theft, and
inappropriate behavior from reoccurring. Security today consists of cameras throughout the property
operated by trained individuals whose job function is to locate cheating and stealing from both players
and employees.

Modern casino security is divided between a physical security force, of training professionals who patrol
the casino, writes reports of criminal and suspicious activity. The casino will train their employees on
cheating to prevent it from happening at their casino. The casino wants to ensure the safety of their
guest as well as the casino’s assets to prevent crime.

A casino is required to prosecute any unusual activity they report. Games are venerable while
surveillance is there to protect the games. Advantage players and cheaters cost money. Game
protection will have multiple decks to give an edge on the game.

There are frauds in all departments where theft is detected. Mechanical machines can be manipulated,
and false jackpots set up. Buckets of coins can be stollen. The casino loses millions of dollars in theft or
fraud that cost the casino money. It is important to have a fair game by preventing the loss and making
it fair to the casino and the customer.

It is important that a casino develops an operation plan for security and surveillance department to
develop the best practice and policies to train the casino team with the proper training on how to
prevent training. Internal control and casino procedures including evaluation of documentation and
preservation may be used as evidence in training casino employees. These practices can be evaluated
and used to train proper game procedures to prevent cheating. Technology can be used to create an
efficient way to protect casino games. A casino can train their employees game procedures to cheating
frauds and discuss how to handle those situations. Training should be ongoing to train to detect new
frauds. Training on Basic Strategy and card counting is important. Detecting card counting, hole card and
top card play is crucial to detecting advantage play and cheating activity. An analysis of play should be
recorded to prevent counter play. Evaluation of policies used to determine compliance with internal
controls and jurisdictional regulations should be performed by a casino.

Cheating in casinos is much more common than casinos like to admit. Although game protection is
important to casinos, it is about impossible to catch every cheat. Dealers are trained to report suspicious
behavior that may allude to cheating. It is impossible to detect every professional player.

Some of the biggest frauds today, as well as some of the most effective advantage plays (legal methods
used by players to gain an advantage over the house, as opposed to cheating), require memory skills
that can be easily acquired with a bit of training, though practice is needed to be proficient enough to
use those skills effectively. A trained memory is a powerful weapon to those who like to see a casino. A
2008 news article from the Macau Daily Times reported on a dealer who was caught with more than
500,000 Hong Kong Dollars in his bank account, 20 percent of a $3 million score.

Shuffle tracking is when a player uses card counting to track where the good cards are in the deck so
that he can bet to his advantage. the relationship between memory and certain advantage plays. For
card counters (a type of advantage player or AP), a great memory is not necessary, as they are only
keeping track of one or two numbers at most: the running count and the true count. A player looking to
legitimately capitalize on a blackjack game using an advanced strategy would need a stronger memory.
For example, let us look at slug tracking and sequential tracking or “ace tracking,” as it is commonly
known, both being forms of shuffle tracking.
Shuffle trackers can identify a clump of high-value cards during play, then follow that clump to the
discard rack and through the shuffle, so that they can exploit the information during the next shoe.
Knowing when that clump of high cards will be dealt, shuffle trackers can increase their bets accordingly
and gain a significant advantage over the house. This may sound simple, yet it requires well-cultivated
skills.

Slug Tracking is identifying a post shuffle slug that is rich in high (aces and 10-value cards) or low cards.
To shuffle track, players must be able to keep several different running counts in their heads at the same
time, then refer to those numbers at a later point, at which time they must add to or subtract from
those numbers. Each shuffle is “mapped” so that these players know which segments of cards will be
joined through the shuffle procedure.

In ace tracking, another AP technique and more elaborate form of shuffle tracking, the dealer
legitimately shuffles the cards, and the AP can predict, with good accuracy, when an ace will appear
(based on information memorized from the previous shoe), giving them the opportunity to bet big at
that point with a substantial advantage over the house. In blackjack, when a player knows that the first
card of a hand dealt to them will be an ace, they have a 52 percent advantage over the house.

The player would memorize the three cards (suit and value) in sequence, called the key cards, which will
be on top of the targeted ace after the dealer picks the cards up and places them into the discard rack.
The ace (with suit) is also memorized, so that the order for this sequence would be queen of hearts, four
of spades, seven of clubs, and ace of spades, in that exact order.

False shuffles for crooked dealers, are skilled at sleight of hand and employed false shuffles after their
accomplices wrote down the order of the cards from the previous shoe. The accomplice would then
leave the table to calculate all outcomes of the slug recorded. After identifying key cards during play, the
scribe and confederates would know exactly when the slug would appear and whether to bet player,
banker, or tie (or even the many side bets now available) for multiple hands to follow because they
knew the exact order of the cards that were about to be dealt.

One of the biggest baccarat frauds ever (up until that time), swindling casinos across the U.S. and
Canada out of an estimated $7 million. They used a network of players and dealers, whom they
recruited and trained to do false shuffles (that annoying sleight of hand skill). A team member would
record a slug during one shoe by writing it on a baccarat score card. Then, the dealer would employ
some false shuffles, but not for the entire shuffle procedure, to retain the order of the slug. Knowing the
exact order of the cards, and thus the outcome of the hands involving those cards, the team would
capitalize on the information.

In response to this fraud, some casinos have eliminated baccarat score cards and have installed
electronic scoreboards instead, which display the results of the hands of the current shoe. Many
legitimate baccarat players are superstitious, so they sometimes like to bet with a trend when they see
it. Electronic scoreboards are a great tool for them to quickly walk by a table and spot a trend they
would like to bet on or against (like banker shown to win many times throughout this shoe), and
subsequently, an ingenious marketing tool for the casino.

A dealer removes the cards from the shuffle machine, gives a player the cut card, then presents the
cards for the player to cut. Somewhere between offering the cards for the cut and placing the cards into
the shoe to deal, the dealer “accidentally” spills the cards onto the table with many of the cards landing
face up fanning the cards to the player informing the player of card locations in the deck.

Memorizing the cards after the deck is cut in Baccarat can help the player to memorize the order of the
cards. During the shuffle, the dealer would riffle the cards too high. This enables him/her to see the
index, and thus the value, of the card at the top of the segment in the left hand. The dealer memorizes
the card and continues the shuffle procedure. On the next riffle, the dealer will again riffle high to see
that top card in his/her left hand, and using sleight of hand, deliberately place the peeked card directly
on top of the card on top of the pile in the right hand, which is the first card peeked and memorized.

A trained memory is not just a device for those looking to take advantage of or swindle a casino game.
Memory can also aid casino staff in observing a play, whether it is during a review or while watching it
live, and to increase productivity. Those who can efficiently recall players’ names, account numbers,
table and pit numbers, camera and zone numbers, buy-ins, wagers, payouts, win/loss, etc., can get the
job done more efficiently and accurately, and provide better customer service to patrons than someone
who must constantly refer to something else, like a touchscreen or piece of paper for information, at
which time they may also miss something important that is happening on the game.

Marked cards are quite common but more so in private games. Special dyes can be added to cards. The
dye is invisible to the naked eye but can be seen with infrared cameras and special lenses. The light can
be detected by the cell phone camera. Casino surveillance often believe that the use of infrared
illuminators would be detected by CCTV cameras. Surveillance can detect the marks by monitoring the
flashing light, shadow, and reflections. CCTV cameras can detect 25 or so frames per second to detect
the marks through the light and viewed by the footage of the camera. Cheating devices can be built into
cell phones, but any electronic device used at the table surveillance can pick up.

Fraud and cheating can cost the casino billions of dollars per year. Examples of how math may be used
to cheat is card counting. By decreasing deck penetration will lower blackjack revenue production as
well as lower the game win/drop hold percentage ad how greater deck penetration would increase the
casino’s overall profitability.