Cheating in Gambling

Both the house, and the player, can cheat at casino gambling, and frequently do. This is true in Europe, and the U.S., despite the fact that the house has no need to cheat.

All casino owners have to do is sit back and let time and the odds take care of their profits. Nevertheless, greed is rampant in the gaming world, and where there's enough greed, dishonesty will follow.

Dealers may still try to cheat both the boss and the customer. If anyone from a big casino denies it, ask him or her why his establishments maintain a peek - a system of catwalks and hidden mirrors - to allow the management to watch its dealers.

All of the casinos have such a spy system, usually on an upper floor, to allow watchers to look down over the dealer's shoulder. Even with these precautions, an estimated four million dollars are stolen every year from Las Vegas casinos, much of it by employees.

Management in the big resorts allow a routine "shrinkage" of 1 percent.

Patrons steal from casinos, too, or try. To get away with this, you need to be a serious cheater, and that's a dangerous business. You can easily wind up in jail if you're caught with a set of marked cards, funny dice, or slugs for the slot machines.

If you're not willing to commit yourself to a life of crime, forget trying to put one over on any casino, anywhere.

As for dealers who cheat, the best you, as a patron, can do is watch closely, and know the game like your own mother's face. There is, to be fair, a real effort on the part of big casino owners to stop cheating.

In the case of Atlantic City, both The State and the casino owners are determined not to get off to the same kind of start that still haunts the history of the Vegas casinos. One rule that has reduced cheating in Vegas is the provision that you can't play at a club where you work.

This goes for singers and chorus girls, as well as for dealers, waiters, owners - everyone.

It prevents, say, a blackjack dealer, and singers, from teaming up to defraud the casino and the customers. It also prevents temper tantrums by sometimes volatile entertainers who have just lost a whole week's earnings at the crap table.

Dealers who cheat get found out in time, and fired. They usually don't get prosecuted, but they don't work in casinos anymore, either.