Casino Surveillance Pro

So last month I posted about some questions that I get from people when they find out what my job is. This is the follow-up to that post and it’s mostly going to be about what cheating from the inside, or cheating by the dealer, would look like if it was going on. The easiest way for a dealer to cheat, on the player’s behalf, would be simply to dump the game. Dumping the game is when you pay the player for a losing hand or overpay the player on a winning hand. If you’re in surveillance and you happen to see this happen oh, the best thing you can do is keep quiet at least for a moment or two and see if it continues. It’s possible that the dealer just made a mistake and paid a losing Hand by mistake. If you continue to watch you’ll see if he’s doing it on a regular basis and if so if he’s doing it to a specific player. This would indicate collusion, or a conspiracy between the player and one or more players to do so. It’s always best to have plenty of information and evidence before movi...

OK, so i havent been blogging as much for the last month or so. Here’s why.  I am back to dealing blackjack and it is taking up a lot of my time. I got a new job at a small, northern Nevada casino (you could track me down without too much trouble, but i am not going to just come out an tell you which one) as a dual rate Manager on Duty and Dealer. Having not dealt cards for over three decades, I have had to do some on the job training to get back in shape.  It’s not quite like riding a bike, in that you never forget how to do it, but it is close. Having spent many of those years in surveillance I still have the mental chops to do it, but the muscle memory is long gone. Throw in some arthritis in my knees (plus chronic leukemia) and standing at a table for 40-60 minutes at a time has been a challenge also.  But enough about my troubles, what I really want to talk about is the “typical” blackjack player that I have been running in to. If I were going to describe them in jus...

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.

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...

I've decided to start reporting on my wins and losses when I gamble here in Reno. Hopefully it will teach some of the newer players out there reading this blog about what it's like to live in Vegas or Reno and enjoy gambling from time to time. So today I went to a casino in Sparks Nevada, which I'm not going to name, and played a little blackjack. I like this casino cuz they have low limit tables usually a $2 or $3 minimum with a $200 max. I bought in for $200, half green half red; put the green in my pocket and sat at a full table playing in the third spot. My bet range was from $20 to $30 per hand. And of course I was counting and tracking Aces. This was a single deck game with a 3-2 payout on blackjack.  (I refused to play at a 6 to 5 game.) Because the table was full there were only two rounds of play before a new shuffle. I played for about half an hour and walked away $50 ahead. I would have had more but on my second to last hand I lost with two tens, when the dea...