For as long as casino’s have existed, so have those that would try to cheat a casino.  Most of the more common attempts at cheating a casino today involved casino employee’s cheating. Oftentimes cheating the players.

That in itself makes this article all the more important, though there may be the few readers that will try the cheats we will outline here, and perhaps end up in lovely new concrete home, with a meal service for no extra charge, our hope is that many other’s learn how to protect themselves from casino cheaters, thieves and other undesirables.

One of the more recent cheating scandals was brought to light by players in a poker room at a casino in Las Vegas Nevada. The con could however be pulled off anywhere in the casino where the dealer pays the player in chips.

Casino Dealer Palms Players Winnings
In this particular case, the dealer split a stack of chips between two players following a poker hand. The dealer calmly palmed a $1000.00 chip from the stack of each player.

One of the players at the table noticed that the money was missing, no one actually saw the dealer palm the chip. The cheat was revealed later.

Now it’s actually pretty unheard of that the actual casino will cheat the players. Face it, if they want more money, they’ll just skew the slot odds a bit further in their favour.

Raise the price of the Buffet, and who knows, maybe charge non hotel guests for using the bathroom.

Casinos don’t want you to feel like they might cheat you, it’s not profitable, not to mention multi billion dollar risk they take by risking their gambling licenses getting caught.

If that weren’t enough to deter would be cheating establishments, then perhaps the criminal charges that they surely face would be enough.

It’s also been rumoured that some cruise ships have been known to cheat players. In fact, the casino cruise lines are rumoured to be notorious cheaters!

Cheating By Un-stacking The Deck
Any game played with cards is open to cheating attempts from both sides of the table if not properly regulated. For instance, a player, or dealer might remove a key card or two from the deck. Imagine a game of blackjack missing 2 ten value cards per deck, now that changes the odds a touch doesn’t it?

If you were playing on a cruise ship, and the cards were manipulated unfavorably. It’s not to much to fathom a six deck shoe, missing all the ten cards from 2 decks.  You wouldn’t notice that would you?

This particular casino cheat is much easier for the casino to pull off however than for the player. The player has to get the cards back into the deck somehow, and the shoe counts them… so to make a difference a blackjack player for instance would have to be palming two’s like nobodies business, and then get them back into the deck without the dealer noticing he handed back to many cards, all before the next shuffle!

Maybe you would notice if half a deck was missing from a six deck shoe. Would you notice if the jacks, queens, kings, and tens from one deck were all replaced by low cards, 2-6?

Hey! Anybody Got a Pen, Pin, Nail File?
Marking of the cards is a pretty common casino cheat actually. This is found quite often in holdem games, and any other game played with a deck of cards.

Players have been known to dog ear cards, scratch them, wrinkle and crinkle them, to mark them.

Since the cards belong to the casino, a crooked casino is a very dangerous place for your bankroll to be. The house can use any manner of methods to mark cards in the deck. Or they can simply utilize well placed mirrors and have a look at what they want to see.

Perhaps you’re familiar with brail? Crooked cruise ships have reportedly used a brail method of marking the cards, placing dents and bumps in the cards that you won’t see, but the dealer feels.

I wouldn’t want to be a player on a cruise ship using any of the above methods however, with the ocean as my only escape…

Betting Less More or Less – Mid Hand
A simpler cheat to pull off is adding or removing casino chips from your betting area during play. For instance, you realize you have a terrible blackjack hand, while asking for a hit, you take a big chip off the top of your bet.

Try it a few times the next time you’re playing a poker tournament get bored, just palm the chips off the top of your own chipstack. See how easily you can train yourself to tap the top of your stack with the palm of your hand come away with a chip.

Which leads to a whole other form of casino cheating. Out and out theft of someone else’s chips. The best way to combat theft of your chips in a casino is simply to keep an eye on them.

Just in case you happen to glance away however, keep the smaller chips on the top of your stack, and the larger chips at the bottom. This way if someone attempts to palm a chip or two and succeeds you’re only out a couple bucks, and not a couple hundred, or worse, a couple thousand.

If you decide to leave your chips on any table while you go anywhere else i.e. the restroom, or on a dinner break if you’re playing poker, have them covered.

Insist upon it. Oftentimes you’ll be reassured that no one will dare to touch your chips ‘here’. That may well be true, but , no harm in covering them just in case. Most casinos have glass chip covers go right over your chips just like a lid.

Collusion: Group Cheating in Casinos
Another common method of cheating in casinos is called collusion. This is when a group, or a team of players help each other to gain an advantage. For instance, players sitting at different tables, with decent vantage points can often see the dealers hole cards at another table.

That player then signals his teammate and alerts him using a signal. Signaling is not allowed in any casino.  To combat this form of cheating, dealers usually keep their cards very low to the table. Especially when checking for a blackjack.

In the movie 21, we also see a form of cheating that involves a team of players counting cards, and signaling to each other when the count is favorable for larger betting.

This article wasn’t intended to give you pointers for cheating during your next casino visit. In fact, that career is only recommended for very large and burly fellows named butch that might be able to hold their own during long periods of incarceration.  This guide to cheating was written to provide you with incite and to help you protect yourself, don’t be a victim, cover your chips.