Casino Business
Casino Business
Casino Countermeasures
The casino is a business just like any other. Let's face it, competition is steep and upkeep is expensive. It costs lots of money to build hotels with suites the size of small cities, give out free drinks all night long, and maintain a workforce right down to the guy whose duties include imprinting the hotel's logo in the sand of every ashtray. A well-run business tries to address or eliminate all inefficiencies, no matter what size. Imagine a house in the dead of winter. Advantage players are like open windows in that house-window open perhaps only a crack, but nevertheless open. Another example: why do most companies turn off the warehouse lights when the warehouse isn't operating?
Card counters take up space. In a casino, a blackjack table is worth so many dollars per square foot. And a seat at that blackjack table is worth "x" dollars an hour when filled, with "x" being dependent on a number of variables ranging from player skill to average bet size. To the casino, a card counter playing at a positive expectation represents a reverse cash flow. In fact, it's a situation similar to the swing experienced when you lose a hand you normally should have won. Instead of winning $450, you lose $450, resulting in a $900 swing. If a seat is worth $69 per hour to the casino, and you're making $63 per hour, then the total swing for the casino is actually $132 per hour-a bit higher than just your take-away amount. Word gets around, and coming down hard on any and all advantage players prevents a casino from becoming known as easy.
''J.J. mentioned the Galapagos Island Casino is dealing its four-deck game down to under half a deck."
"Really? I'll be in that part of the world next Tuesday. I was planning to hit Easter Island's casino, but since penetration in the Galapagos is so good I'll go there instead. And I think Kaitlyn is planning a trip next month. I'll mention it to her as well."
From the casino's perspective, call it the gnat syndrome: one becomes two becomes four becomes eight and so on. One gnat isn't bad, but when is there ever only one?
Note, too, that information like penetration levels is meaningless to non-counters. The casinos aren't getting extra market share from normal losing players, only an increase in visitation from card counters.
Situations become personal confrontations. I've experienced all kinds of heat in my career, from civilized back offs to uncivilized barring to procedural changes that were made with an undertone of hostility. In the instances when I've encountered uncivilized treatment, it was obvious that the parties involved had it out for me simply because I was an advantage player applying a skill with which I had become proficient. It seemed to become somewhat of a personal confrontation-my playing in their pit, or on their turf, and beating them. I suppose it's just the sadder side of human nature for some people to become antagonistic towards others who are good at something cerebral, or who stand to gain from their ability. If card counters must be barred, backed off, or treated unlike everyone else, then why not make it strictly an unemotional business decision, and leave the antagonism out of it?
Resistance exists because it's allowed to exist. After all, what industry provides the number one source of income to the state of Nevada? With that said, why should the law limit what casinos can and cannot do while staying within the law? I don't believe it's really any more complicated than that.
