Casino Surveillance Pro

I just watched another good dice setting video. You can see it by clicking here . The dice are set with a 6 and 5 on top and the threes facing you prior to throwing. The throw is made with a slow, pendulum motion and slight backspin. The main point of this video is that you need to make adjustments if you keep throwing sevens. The only adjustment he makes in the video is to move the dice, so that the one that was on the left side is now on the right. (Watch the video and you'll see what I mean.) I know it doesn't seem like much but this adjustment makes a big difference. He goes from throwing three sevens in his first 6 rolls, to throw I eat 10 straight rolls without a seven. It's a really small sample size obviously, but it might indicate a real-world difference. Now I am still not convinced that all this will work , but I am going to give it another try.  My next time out I will use the same grip set and throwing motion, along with the "Iron Cross" beting s...

So a few days ago I posted a poll on Twitter asking people to vote on what their favorite movie was about casinos or casino gambling. Because Twitter doesn't offer an unlimited number of voting slots (only 4) I selected 3 movies, plus an other category, where you would have to name the movie in a reply or retweet. The three movies I selected were 21, with Kevin Spacey, Casino with Robert De Niro and The Cooler with William H Macy. These three movies illustrate what I consider to be the best movies out there with casinos and casino gambling at the core of their plots. Here are the results: 1. Casino        .                   73% 2. Other                              13% 3. Tie - 21 and The Cooler 7% each The votes for...

Well it's finally here. This week marks the opening of the college football season for 2018. Let's get things off on the right foot with a win. Being on the West Coast I spent a lot of time watching Pac-12 football, and I also watch a lot of the Mountain West, as I live in Reno. So my pic this week involves teams from each conference, USC vs UNLV.  This game opened with USC favored by 31 points, the number is down to 26.5 as I write this on Thursday morning. Good for you if you got it at 31 points because I think the Running Rebels are going to cover. Here is my analysis: The Trojans have the firepower to win the game out right, no serious doubt about that. However they had to replace  some key people on offense due to graduations and they are starting a true freshman at quarterback. Also they might be looking ahead to next week, where they have a huge early-season Pac-12 showdown with Stanford.  UNLV, meanwhile, would love to get off to a good start this year against a ...

2 arrested in slot burglaries at bars in Reno-Sparks area The Associated Press August 21, 2018 - 4:11 am   RENO — Police have arrested two men suspected of stealing at least $25,000 in burglaries involving slot machines at more than a dozen bars in the Reno-Sparks areas. Reno police say 37-year-old Michael Robinson and 37-year-old Matthew Wiley were arrested early Monday after they left a business they burglarized in Sparks. Police say they targeted slot machines and allegedly committed three burglaries over the past few days. Washoe County sheriff’s deputies and police in Reno and Sparks started conducting surveillance on the suspects in May because it appeared the crimes could be related. Detectives believe they are responsible for at least 14 thefts totaling between $25,000 and $30,000. It’s not clear if they have lawyers or will be appointed one at a pending court appearance.

Las Vegas Casino Security Needs To Watch For More Than Cheaters To Qualify For Federal Liability Protection, Expert Says If Las Vegas casinos and hotels want to receive the type of liability protection that MGM Resorts is seeking nearly one year after the Oct. 1 shooting, they’re going to have to prove that their security systems can do more than just catch clever card counters at the blackjack table, according to one lawyer. Hotels are currently not among the facilities that have been approved for Department of Homeland Security certification that protects and limits liability in the event of a terrorist or violent attack on their premises under the SAFETY Act of 2002. And at least according to one expert, Las Vegas casinos might need to dramatically diversify and amplify  their surveillance procedures in order to meet those standards. Lack of Guilt by Association “What they would have to show is that those cameras are equally useful for terrorist threats, such as...

Check out my latest Tweet and vote on your favorite casino gambling movie, here . Click here to become a Patron and help support my blogging. And  here is the link to my Amazon affiliate page and some  Good books about Casino gambling . And you can also get a free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime by clicking on this link here . I am also now selling advertising sponsorships on this blog. I can devote an entire blog post to your product, service or anything else gaming-related. Click on this link to go to my eBay listing here .

Here's another great way to help support my blog. You can get a free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime by clicking on this link here .

Senator Orrin Hatch calls for federal oversight of U.S. sports betting industry Howard Stutz, CDC Gaming Reports ·  August 24, 2018 at 1:20 pm Retiring U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch said Thursday he plans to introduce legislation that would call for federal oversight of the nation’s growing legal sports betting market. In a speech on the Senate floor, the Utah Republican, who has said he is not seeking re-election this year, said that the recent legalization of sports betting by individual states “has been a race to the bottom.” Three states – Delaware, New Jersey and Mississippi – have launched sportsbooks at casinos and racetracks, and a fourth – West Virginia – expects to see its first sportsbook open by Sept. 1. Pennsylvania has also approved sports wagering regulations, and more than a dozen other states are exploring the issue. “I firmly believe that we need a set of fundamental, federal standards that will protect the integrity of the game, consumers, and the spor...

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Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said someone found a suspicious package was found in the mailroom area of the Sands Expo Convention Center. Metro's ARMOR team responded to the scene to conduct the investigation. The building is located at Sands Avenue and Koval Lane.  The package was reported at 5:19 p.m. Thursday 8/23/18

Last week I posted a Twitter poll (@casinologger) asking readers to vote on which hand was the hardest to stick to basic strategy on. These were the four poll options, along with what percentage of votes they got: 1. Hard 12 vs dealers 2 up 34% 2. Hard 13 vs dealers 3 up 31% 3. 9,9 vs dealers 7 up  14% 4. A,6 vs dealers 6 up  21% Here is my analysis of your votes: As you can see, hands 1 and 2 together took 65% of the votes, and I'm sure I know why.  I hate when the dealer has a two or a three up and apparently you guys do too. I just know that if the dealer has a ten for a hole card, he will draw an eight. Or if he has a seven for a hole card he'll draw a 10.  I even seem to lose when I stand on a 20 in these situations. The way to play this hand is to remember that when the dealer has a two or three up you hit if you have a hard 12 and stand if you have a hard 13. Now, you can deviate from basic strategy based on the count if you want to. but if you do it to...

In yet another attempt to to monetize my blog, I am now selling sponsorships for you to advertise anything gaming-related on this site. Books, websites, apps, articles or whatever, as long as it has to do with casino gambling I will advertise it for you here,  and for a very reasonable rate. For those of you unfamiliar with my blog, I can tell you a little about it. I've been blogging on Blogger for almost 2 years. I am up to over 3, 000 page views a month, which I know isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, however my blog is very targeted.   All of the people that read this blog are interested in the casino industry as a whole, and specifically the following things:  Casino surveillance, Casino gaming and it's management, blackjack (basic strategy and  advantage play), craps and other table games, slot machines, sports betting, loss prevention, CCTV technology, the philosophy and training of surveillance personnel, and security and surveillance response ...

Last night I continued my empirical research on dice setting, with mixed results. Let me tell you about it. So I was back at the Bonanza Casino, on North Virginia Street about 3 miles north of downtown, where the craps table has either a $2 or $3 minimum until 6 pm on most weekdays. I bought in for my usual hundred, and placed $5 on the pass line. My plan was the same as it usually is when I play craps: $5 pass line with max odds, and then place the 6 and 8 for $12 each, once a point is established. I'm continuing with the same way of setting that I said I've done before, which is to have the five and one touching each other on the inside. I also noticed that the threes face me as I set the dice, in kind of a V formation. I then used my three finger/one thumb grip and through the dice to the far end of the table as before, as low and slow as I possibly can. (I've taken to calling this a "low energy" dice toss.) So what were the results? I threw a lot of sevens ...

One of my followers on Twitter, Eddie "Mastersnake" DeSoto (@corvetteflex)  wants to know if there's any way that a slot machine can be made to pay off more often from a remote location, AKA hacking it. Here's what I know. First of all, I know of no documented case in the United States where that is happened. I have heard about it happening in Europe, particularly Eastern Europe. But first, a little background. There are two types of slot machines being used currently, 1 used all over the world and the other only found in North American casinos. The first type is a stand-alone slot machine like you would find in Nevada, or anywhere in the world that there's a corporate-owned casino. What designates them as 'stand alone" is that they have a random number generator chip embedded on their motherboard, and every time you press the spin or play button that RNG provides a number which corresponds with a game result. Everything that happens on the screen, the ...

As I begin, here is a reminder that I have a Patron page. Click here to become a Patron and support my Blogging. And  here is the link to my Amazon affiliate page and some  Good books about Casino gambling . Now on with the show. I came across this article online and wanted to pass it on to you here. Lucky Idiots' May Be Bigger Casino Threat Than Card-counters Casino bosses who agonize about blackjack card-counters might be focusing on the wrong type of advantage player, a top gambling mathematician says. Instead, they should look closer at the “lucky idiot” who repeatedly plays poorly yet amasses huge winnings, says Eliot Jacobson, owner and president of Jacobson Gaming and operator of www.apheat.net , which analyzes casino games, side bets and methods of advantage play. That “lucky idiot” might be part of a team using advantage-play techniques that are more profitable than card-counting and more difficult for casino supervisors to identify, Jacobson says. In general, adva...

I came across a very good article called "Do Today's Legitimate Brick and Mortar Casinos Cheat Their Players?" I don't want to plagiarize it, it's too long for that, and besides the example he cites is somewhat rare and doesn't really apply to the US mainland casinos. But if you frequent casinos in Nevada or elsewhere, you should read it. Click here to read the article. And here is a reminder about my Patron page. Click here to become a Patron and support my blogging. And  here is the link to my Amazon affiliate page and some  Good books about Casino gambling and surveillance.  You can also get a free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime by clicking on this link here . I also sell advertising sponsorships on this blog. I can devote an entire blog post to your product, service or anything else gaming-related. Click on this link here to go to my eBay listing  and read all about it.

I just put out a Tweet. It's a poll  asking which is your most difficult hand to play correctly (in accordance with basic strategy). Click here to go to it and vote. Once the poll is ended I'll do a blog post analyzing the results. My handle on Twitter is @casinologger BTW, you should follow me if you don't already do so Here is another great way to support my blogging. I'm now an Amazon affiliate and if you click on the link below you will be taken to a page where I get credit for purchases made by you. Amazon has some great books about how to win at Blackjack, craps, and other casino games. Thanks for helping to support my blog, and click below. Good books about Casino gambling

I went out for a second dice session, where I would be testing my dice setting and throwing skills. As you might recall from my first post about this I won around $65 the first time I tried it. Didn't have that kind of luck this time. I was back to the Club Cal-Neva in downtown Reno, at the same $3 minimum table. As before I bought in with $60, but this time I had  inconsistent results. I set the dice the same way as before with the five and the one touching each other in the center of the of the two dice stack. I sevened out immediately after getting my first point. I was never up at any time during the session. I was the only one at the table, so of course I was the only shooter. I played for about half an hour, occasionally having a decent run, hitting some points, but then I'd seven out and lose it all. I finally walked away from the table with around $20, making me a $40 loser. Oh well. I'm still not convinced that this dice setting/controlling thing is real.  Of co...

Here is another great way to support my blogging. I'm now an Amazon affiliate and if you click on the link below you will be taken to a page where I get credit for purchases made by you. Amazon has some great books about how to win at Blackjack, craps, and other casino games. Thanks for helping to support my blog, and click below. Good books about Casino gambling

I found another great craps video on YouTube, this one talks about the different pay off amounts on place bets. It's really pretty goofd. Click Here to view it.   I also came across an article in Cigar Aficionado magazine recently. It's about the leader of a group of advantage players, who have taken a large amount of money, if they are to be believed, out of a lot of different casinos. Click here to go to the article. I also want to mention some Android apps that I use on a pretty regular basis. (If you're an iPhone user, sorry you're on your own.) For craps, I use an app called Craps Trainer Pro, by E7systems.com. I use the paid version, I think it was about four or five dollars. It's a fun little Sam, that will not let you make play sore by bets or take off odds unless you bet the right amount of money. And the payoffs are accurate. I used two different apps for training on blackjack. The first is called Blackjack Strategy Trainer by Aeon Apps. it shows yo...

I had one of my local readers, here in Reno too, ask me why I don't talk about slot machines more often. So I'll cover that in this post Quite frankly, slot machines not that interesting to me. I rarely play them and when I do play machines it's either penny or nickel video poker or a Keno game. I never, evet play the reel type slots. They just hold no interest for me. As a surveillance professional, they don't hold a lot of interest in me anymore either. It used to be slots were a common target of cheaters. And there were dozens of different ways to shape the machines. You could feed slugs instead of real coins into the machine. You could use a device called a "monkey's paw" to block the optics and cause a machine to pay out more than it should. In yhr real old days, when slot machines were mechanical instead of electrical, you could pop the handle at certain times to cause the reals to stop in a payoff position. None of that can be done anymore. All ...

My week 3 NFL pick of the week is sponsored by online betting site Sportsbetting.ag. For those of you who don't have access to a Sportsbook, or aren't already using an online app to make bets, check them out by clicking here .  Don't forget to check out their Welcome bonus,  where they match your deposit up to 50% on the first $1000! My five star pick of the week this week is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home, on Monday night, now giving up 1.5 points against the Pittsburgh Steelers. When I first posted this earlier in the week they were getting 1.5 points, so the line has changed considerably as money comes in on Tampa Bay. Here is my analysis: This is the Steelers first game on the road this year, and they are still without star running back Le'Veon Bell. The word is that Bells holdout has divided the locker room into different camps and the Steelers are suffering on the field as a result. Pittsburgh was upset at home last week by the impressive Kansas City Chiefs,...

As summer turns to fall, a young man's fancy turns to football. And Old Men too, BTW. So let's talk about the upcoming pro and college football seasons and get ready to try and make some money. My first rule about pro football, is to not ever bet on preseason games. Preseason football is not real football. It's really just a glorified scrimmage and mostly used by teams to evaluate incoming players, whether they be free agent signings or draft picks. They also want to evaluate the players that are carried over from the previous year and compare them to the newcomers. The first string players rarely play more than just the first quarter or two, and then spend the rest of the time on the bench not getting injured All this should not come as a shock to anyone. So don't ever bet on preseason football, OK? That's not to say that the preseason is not an important time of the year. I like to pick out several teams that I'm going to keep a very close eye on througho...

Two Employees Charged with Armed Robbery at Their Own Casino Now in Federal Custody Cort Smith 3 days ago Two Mazatzal Casino workers in Arizona who moved in on the cage of their own employers on July 17 shortly after midnight, brandishing firearms and shooting multiple rounds, are now in federal custody. Miraculously, no one was hurt in the attack. The two men alleged to be involved were tracked down and arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of the $650,000 taken, according to federal court records, some $480,000 has now been recovered, with no word on the status of the remaining dough. FBI agents arrested 31-year-old Ryan Pearson and 32-year old Armando Ochoa this week for their alleged roles in the robbery. Officials say the pair fired several rounds from their weapons as they tried to intimidate casino employees — their own co-workers — into handing over cash. Both men have been charged with Hobbs Act Robbery and Use of a Weapon in a Crime of Violence. “Hobb...

TMZ is reporting that Henry Nicholas III  -- the billionaire co-founder of tech giant Broadcom -- was arrested after cops say they found cases of hard drugs in his Las Vegas hotel room. Law enforcement sources told TMZ that Nicholas couldn't get into his room at the Encore Tuesday and when security assisted, they discovered his girlfirend,  Ashley Fargo , was unresponsive with a semi-deflated balloon in her mouth. Paramedics responded and revived Fargo, but security began questioning Nicholas about the balloon and canisters, which he admitted were nitrous oxide.  Sources also say security noticed 2 cases in the room which needed to be inspected per hotel rules ... because they looked like the kind used to carry weapons. Instead of weapons, Vegas PD found one case full of marijuana and another full of what appeared to be narcotics. The couple was arrested and booked for felony drug trafficking of multiple controlled substances ... including heroin, cocaine, meth and MD...

A few posts back, I talked about the best low-tech way to keep a cashier honest. This time we're going to talk about some higher-tech methods. First of all you have to understand that all surveillance systems these days record video digitally using computers, servers and network-attached storage arrays. (VCR's and videotapes haven't been manufactured in over 10 years, and I don't know any casino surveillance operation that is still using them, of course there may be a few I don't know of.) Most larger casino operations also use a networked point-of-sale system, instead of just a regular cash register, to ring up guest tickets and collect all payments. Depending on the type of software involved, the POS and CCTV systems can be integrated together through an application that runs on a web browser. This application allows a surveillance observer to watch what a cashier is ringing up and collecting for payment, both in real time and when doing a review. It will also...

This is a repost of a post I made about a year ago, but I feel like it bares s repeating. Enjoy. I got another good question last week, from a reader wanting to know what a surveillance room is like, how it is laid out and how it is staffed and run.  So here goes. I have worked in surveillance departments at six different casinos in the last 25 years. Some very small (300 slots, 6 blackjack tables) and some very big (3000 slots, 60-70 table games of all kinds). When I started in the early 90's it was all VCRs and not all cameras were recorded all the time. We used a lot of "multi-plexers" and "quad screens". A multi-plexer used one VCR to display and record up to 16 screens on one monitor. Since the VCR still records at 30 frames per second, that meant that if you did a review on any one of those 16 screens you would be looking at a "freeze frame" effect, where you only got 1.8 frames per second of the shot you were looking at. A quad would record ...

 The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that  MGM Resorts will implement a 20 percent service charge at all spas and salons inside the company’s Strip properties.The company said the added service charge essentially replaces tips. Five MGM properties — The  Mirage,   Excalibur,   Luxor,   MGM Grand  and New York-New York — already have a service charge at their spas and salons.   Aria, Bellagio,   Vdara,   Mandalay Bay and  Delano Las Vegas  will be joining, with the charge in place by the end of August. David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV, said it’s unclear how  this decision will affect MGM Resorts ; it could bring in additional revenue in the short term, but it could also affect customers’ goodwill. Visitors to Las Vegas “have become increasingly outspoken in their disapproval of add-on charges and fees, and it is hard to imagine that customers will be happy with a new service charge,...

Hi everybody, before we start I want to remind you about my Patreon page. If you enjoy my content, and would like to see more of it more often, please consider becoming a patron. Click here to go to my page Okay, so it's Hot August Nights week here in Reno and all of the casinos are packed during dinner time hours. So I went out late last night to my favorite place to play blackjack and craps in Reno, the Bonanza Casino on North Virginia Street. Click here for their website. I like this place because of their low limit tables. They go up to $5 minimum tables after 4 p. M. But late night and early morning you can play at a $3 blackjack table or $2 craps table, which is about as low as you can get in Reno. Or anywhere, for that matter. I did my hit-and-run thing, buying in for $100 and leaving after about half-an-hour up 45. It was a $5 minimum table, single-deck, 3/2 table with the standard Reno rules. There were usually two or three other people at the table with me througho...

This is a reprint of a previous post on advantage play. Before I begin, I want to remind you about my Patreon page. If you enjoy my content, and would like to see more of it more often, please consider becoming a patron. Click here to go to my page. Whenever I meet people and tell them what my profession has been for the last 25 years, I always come away with the feeling that they equate card counting and advantage play as cheating. It is not, of course, as most of the readers of this blog undoubtedly know. It is just against the policy of most casinos to allow it. As a legally licensed, privately owned business located on private property, all casinos have the right to refuse service to anyone, for any reason they choose. Most of the time, card counting, or ace/shuffle tracking, or anything else that casino management considers "advantage play" wont even get you thrown out, just politely asked to not play blackjack anymore. Management would love to have you go play slots...

Former New York Knicks big man Charles Oakley pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct to resolve a case stemming from an alleged cheating incident last month at a Las Vegas casino. Oakley was arrested in Las Vegas on July 7 and accused of committing -- or attempting to commit -- a fraudulent act in a gaming establishment, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said. As a result of a plea bargain, Oakley will face no jail time. TMZ reports that Oakley was fined $1,000. Oakley originally was charged with a Class B felony and, if convicted, could have faced a sentence of one to six years in a state prison and a fine of no more than $10,000. "Mr. Oakley has pled no contest to the simple misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct which fully resolves this situation," Oakley's attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in a statement provided to ESPN. "He appreciates the professionalism of the District Attorney and the Cosmopolitan in resolvi...

This post is a reprint of one that I did almost 2 years ago. Is part two of my three-part series On the philosophy of Gaming. Ok, so here is what I would expect some gambling sessions look like, if you are using your powers of observation and the correct mind set to influence your money management and exit strategy. Losing session. Lets start with the bad. Lets say you start with 100 units and you decide to set a stop loss for your self of 60 units. So you buy in for $100 at a Five dollar minimum, single deck table.  Its you and two other people at the table, you sit at third base. At the top of deck you bet 5 units, a lot of small cards come out during the hand, and you win. At a plus 4 with no aces out, you decide to double up, so you bet 10 units. You draw two face cards, but the dealer has a BJ and you lose.  Now the count is minus 1 with 2 aces out, so you drop back down to 5 units and lose again. Shuffle.  You've lost two in a row, so, even though its top of deck, ...

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I keep coming across this while doing research online for blog post subjects and I wanted to comment on it. The myth is that casinos pump oxygen into the gaming floor area to keep people awake, and stimulated, and to continue gambling. I don't know where this idea came from, but it's easily debunked by anyone who is ever been in the back of house area of a large casino. I've worked at multiple casinos as an observer, manager and technician. I have had unfettered access to the back of house areas of at least a dozen different casinos both in Nevada, and in other jurisdictions. I've also spent many days on rooftops, installing cameras near HVAC equipment. I am yet to ever see a large group of oxygen tanks hooked up to any of that. If you think about it, oxygen is a highly flammable gas, and casinos are some of the few remaining public areas that allow people to light up a cigarette. Not a good mix. I can assure you this is a total muyh. This is not to say the casinos...

Here are some random facts about the world of casinos, surveillance and loss prevention. Story : As of mid 2018, t here are 506 tribal gambling facilities operated by 244 tribes across 29 states, according to the Indian Gaming Commission. Gross tribal gambling revenue hit $31.2 billion in fiscal year 2016, an increase of 4.4 percent over the previous year. Commentary : That's a lot of casinos and a lot of $$$. Story:  A loss-prevention employee at a Kroger market in  Cordova, TN recemtly shot at a man who was trying to steal meat, according to Memphis Police Department.  Police said a man was trying to steal meat and ran out of the store.  A loss prevention employee shot at the suspect's gray Chevy Malibu, MPD said.  No injuries were reported Commentary : I have never heard of loss prevention personnel being allowed to carry weapons on the job. I think it's a horrible idea. There is no way that the loss prevention officer had any probable cause to use d...