Cheating Part II

13 October 2022

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Last week we discussed a “past poster” couple who hit the casino for two big shots and then melted away. It was pretty fast in the scheme of things and they got away with it. A past poster makes the winning bet after the bet has already won by quickly placing the bet on the betting square or circle and gets paid as if that bet actually won.

ABBY: It is one of the oldest cheating tricks in the casino. And it still works if the cheater can do it fast.

CINDY: When it happened the second time, we discussed whether we should alert the authorities about them but we argued with each other so much that they had left the table long before we came to a decision.

ABBY: You’d think in moral issues you will always do the right thing. In this case we couldn’t figure our what the right decision was.

CINDY: Well, we did finally do something, kind of a coward’s thing. We wrote a note and sent it to security alerting them that a past-post couple had hit successfully their roulette table. Maybe they found out who they were and arrested them.

ABBY: Probably not.

CINDY: Probably not.

ABBY: But we had a worse example of cheating at a casino. At least I thought it was the worst example.

CINDY: Oh, so did I. This was a small casino. Not a Vegas or Atlantic City type. The casino was in the boondocks so to speak. Small but crowded as it was a Thursday night where they gave out special meals at the buffet as a comp to just about anyone.

ABBY: We played blackjack at a great single-deck game.

CINDY: You can tell this was the “old days” in the history of blackjack. A single deck with good rules.

ABBY: We bought into the game.

CINDY: The dealer was a nice-looking woman; her accomplice was a nice-looking man. A regular guy. Not someone you’d be alerted to that he was a crook.

ABBY: As the game is progressing, the man quickly turns over his cards, he has a face card and a 10 which makes 20, but the dealer pays him as if he has a blackjack and sweeps his cards off the table. Obviously a mistake but I wouldn’t interrupt the game to point out the mistake. The player was obviously lucky, right, as he was paid for a blackjack but only had a 20.

CINDY: A little while later, after a shuffle---

ABBY: Single-deck games have a lot of shuffles.

CINDY: The man turns over another 20! The dealer pays him again for a blackjack. Remember that a blackjack pays 3-to-2. It’s the premium hand at the game. The guy was betting green chips too.

ABBY: It happens a few shuffles later. This guy is getting blackjacks like crazy.

CINDY: I got up pretending I was going to the restroom. I went to a table away from blackjack and asked the pit woman if those “eyes-in-the-sky” were working. She laughed and said they are out of order but the pit people watch the games. There’s no problem. Okay, I said.

ABBY: Cindy asked me if I wanted to go to the bathroom with her. That was weird because she rarely does that. I got up and we went to the bathroom.

CINDY: I told her I thought the guy and dealer were cheating the house by paying off normal bets as if they were blackjacks.

ABBY: I had noticed that but the payouts were 2-to-1 not 3-to-2. Some losing hands were paid too.

CINDY: I didn’t notice that.

ABBY: And the floor person would turn his back and check another table when the fake blackjacks were paid out.

CINDY: It’s the staff stealing from the casino. That’s was a first for us.

[ABBY: Next week we’ll take a final look at cheating!]