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Casinos Take Aim at Card Counters

WASHINGTON, DC – As reported by the Washington Times: "As reported by the It's getting so you can't even play a hand of blackjack without being electronically watched and having your style of play analyzed by a computer hooked to an alarm system.

"…[MindPlay] is a company that wants to help casinos catch card counters.

"Card counters are people who beat the casinos at blackjack by being smart. They watch and remember all the cards that have been played to improve their chances of winning.

"…Casinos don't like card counters. They carry off money.

"Over the years I've read of various attempts to catch them, from casino employees with photo albums to face-recognition systems using cameras and computers. MindPlay has a better idea, and it gives me the willies: A bunch of cameras watch all the cards.

"Cameras can do this because the cards will have their values written in ink visible to the cameras but not to the human eye. (The first person to find a way to read those numbers undetected is really going to make a killing.)

"The computer watches the players, all their cards and the bets they make, and looks for patterns.

"…Now, it isn't clear to me why people shouldn't count cards that are visible to everyone in the game. But that's not a technological question.

"The interesting thing here is that the burgeoning surveillance industry is now starting to watch for behavior, not just things. It is one thing to have cameras with human operators watching you in department stores so that you don't shoplift.

"…But when computers in public places begin analyzing behavior and then calling the cops, we've taken a large step forward. Or in some direction…."

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