Sometimes I HATE being right.
Really!
I know most people hate being wrong, but sometimes even when I know that I am going to be proven right…I WANT to be wrong.
I make my living off of Precision-Shooting. I would like to be able to continue doing so because it is a very lucrative pursuit for me.
While I am making decent money from it, I am also very careful to shield most of my winnings from the casinos that I play at.
The reason is pretty clear.
Casinos don’t like consistent winners.
Oh sure, they know that some people will win sometimes, and that is the nature of gambling, but they don’t want you to do it too often or for too much money.
When I am in a casino, I attribute any of my winning to incredibly good luck. If anyone talks about “skill”, I casually wave it off as an urban-myth.
Players Banned for Winning
As most of you know, Greektown Casino in Detroit recently decided to ban thirty video-poker players who have won “too much” money in their casino.
There was no allegation of cheating or stealing or anything else illegal, immoral or distasteful. Those players were simply banned because they won too much money.
The Banning Articles
http://www.detnews.com/2002/business/0211/25/a01-19565.htm
http://www.detnews.com/2002/editorial/0211/27/a12-21174.htm
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbi…own+casino
http://www.detnews.com/2002/busi…-19565.htm
Gaming writer Andrew Grazer’s perspective:
http://www.freep.com/news/casinos/gam6_20021206.htm
Brian Dickerson’s clear-headed business perspective:
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/dicker27_20021127.htm
What Does it mean to YOU?
Well let’s start with Millennium Management, the company that operates Greektown in Detroit.
Millennium is made up of three partners.
~ Bill Wortman owns Nevada Palace in Las Vegas.
~ Bob Mendenhall owns Las Vegas Paving.
~ Bill Paulos is a long-time LV casino-management legend.
Millennium Management also operates the Rampart Casino at JW Marriott (the former Resort at Summerlin in Las Vegas), and they are the owners of the new 50,000 square-foot Cannery Casino which opens in North Las Vegas later this month.
The message is clear:
~ They DO NOT like winners! They especially do not like consistent winners or anyone who shows any apparent level of skill in ANY casino game.
~ When they read the “advantage-players riot-act” (the Trespass Act) to you; your money-making ventures will come to an end at their gaming-house.
So far it is only thirty advantage-play video-poker patrons at one casino, but consider this:
If it can happen in Detroit, and be perpetrated by licensed casino operators who also operate in Nevada; then folks, it can happen anywhere and EVERYWHERE across this nation.
You can wear rose-colored glasses to screen out reality, and continue to believe that you don’t have to shield your wins. However you are likely going to sacrifice your casino-playing longevity for instant-gratification greed, gluttony and blind ambition.
When you do finally open your eyes, it may be too late.
Ignore History at your Peril
I laugh out-loud when I read how seemingly intelligent people say that casinos will never, ever ban successful Precision-Shooters.
While I understand that some of them may have a vested interest in perpetuating that pretty wish, it is in fact, just wishful and hopeful thinking, praying and hoping.
The facts don’t support that optimism.
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, they actually held blackjack card-counting clinics in a number of casinos. In point of fact, the old Royal Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas where John Patrick filmed a few of his videotapes, even held a few of those “Beat Blackjack” seminars.
Of course, those $299 seminars were brought to a grinding halt when the casinos realized that while new players were being brought into the casino with the attraction and lure of a “beatable” game; they found that they were taking occasional HUGE hits from savvy counters and coordinated teams.
Yes, books like “Beat The Dealer” and a number of other publications increased the interest in blackjack. And while the casinos were very happy that lots of fresh meat…er, I mean, new players were coming in and losing tons of money, the casinos weren’t going to let a few skilled advantage players steal any freshly-hatched eggs from their golden goose.
There was a brief and glorious period when blackjack gained in popularity and the game flourished, but the money-making honeymoon of big money for advantage-playing card-counters was relatively short-lived.
The casinos saw the huge profit that they could make from people who couldn’t count properly, or lacked knowledge of basic-strategy, or were poorly disciplined money-managers, but were nonetheless attracted to this “beatable” game.
At the same time, the casinos didn’t want their golden feathers to be plucked by an disciplined and highly-skilled counters who actually mastered the game. So they did what any good business-owner would do. They re-jigged the business-model (the rules of the game) until they could still continue to draw steady losers, but discourage or outright bar the advantage-players.
That is the reality of the current world of blackjack.
It didn’t take the casinos long before they initiated the unending string of counter-measures that are employed against skilled blackjack counters to this very day.
Shall I mention a few? How about:
- Facial-Recognition software
- Random-shuffling
- Shallow deck penetration
- Multi-decking
- No mid-shoe game entry
- Dealing past certain players
- Limited betting ranges
- Continuous-Shuffling machines
- Outright barring of “advantage” players
Oh, and let me mention the new favorite counter-measure du-jour:
~The elimination of the 3-to-2 payment for a two-card “21”, in favor of the higher house-advantage 6-to-5 payout.
New Lunacy, Old Greed
I’m told that some people are starting to hold their dice-setting seminars right in the casinos.
Well that should certainly make it easier to identify advantage-players in the future.
They keep saying, “Mad Professor, there ain’t no way, no how that casinos will never, ever bar skilled Precision-Shooters. I’m telling you MP it will never, ever happ…OOPS!!
Like I said, sometimes I HATE being right.
Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables…and in Life.
Sincerely,
The Mad Professor
