Cheating in casinos refers to actions by the player or the house which are prohibited by regionalgambling control authorities. This may involve using suspect apparatus, interfering with apparatus, chip fraud or misrepresenting games. The formally prescribed sanctions forcheating depend on the circumstances and gravity of the cheating and thejurisdiction in which thecasino operates. InNevada, for a player to cheat in a casino is afelony under state law. In most other jurisdictions, specificstatutes do not exist, and alleged instances of cheating are resolved by the gambling authority who may have more or less authority to enforce its verdict.
Advantage play techniques are not cheating.Card counting, for example, is a legitimate advantage play strategy that can be employed inblackjack and othercard games. In almost all jurisdictions, casinos are permitted to ban from their premises customers they believe are using advantage play, regardless of whether they are in fact doing so and even though it is not cheating, though this practice of barring law-abiding citizens from public places is subject to judicial review. So far, courts in New Jersey andNorth Las Vegas, Nevada have found the practice of barring law-abiding citizens to be illegal.
The methods for cheating in a casino are often specific to individual games and include the following:
Past posting: After a bet is won, a player replaces smaller-denomination chips with large-denomination chips.
Hand mucking: Palming desirable cards, then switching them for less desirable cards that the gambler holds.
Using a "holdout" device to remove a card from the game until needed at a later time.
Card marking: Various methods exist to mark cards during play.
Marked decks: Usually involving the collusion of casino employees, it may be possible for a marked deck to be introduced into play. There are many different ways to mark decks of cards, some of them very difficult to detect. Casinos often replace their cards at table games and either sell or give away the used decks. These decks are usually cut or altered before they are sold or given away. This is to prevent cheaters from buying used decks and then using the cards to cheat at table games.
Tampering withslot machines: Methods exist for altering the outcome of slot machine games.
Collusion: In poker games, the practice of two partners signaling to each other the values of their cards can be very difficult to detect.[1] Also, intable games, players can collude with the dealer.
Using auxiliary devices: In Nevada, New Jersey, and other jurisdictions, using any device which helps to forecast the odds or aid in a legitimate strategy such ascard counting is regarded as cheating.[2]
Top hats: Inroulette, players place a bet after the ball has landed. The chips are disguised using a third party's chip - the "top hat".
Using a computer to gain an edge, illegal in Nevada since 1985.
Exploiting bugs in online casino software: In one example from 1999, security researchers fromCigital found that the online poker software used byPlanet Poker and other sites did not shuffle cards adequately. The worst of the flaws they discovered was that thepseudorandom number generator used in the shuffling algorithm wasseeded solely using the value of thesystem clock; a cheater knowing the server time to within one or two minutes (allowing for only around 200,000 possible shuffles under the flawed algorithm) could identify the order of all cards in the deck after seeing just five of them (the cheater's two hole cards and the flop inTexas hold 'em).[3]
False deals: A dealer may be able to deal the second card from the top (used in conjunction with marked cards), or the ability to deal the bottom card of the deck (used in conjunction with placing desirable cards at the bottom of the deck), see for exampleMechanic's grip.
False shuffles and cuts: A dealer may seem to mix or cut the cards, while retaining certain cards or the whole deck in a desired order.
Using a deck of cards with non-standard composition.
Cards used at table games are altered by the casinos to prevent them from being used to cheat at table games.
Cheating can be reduced by employing "proper procedure" - certain standardized ways of shuffling cards, dealing cards, storing, retrieving and opening new decks of cards.[6]
Most casinos are obliged to have an extensive array ofsecurity cameras and recorders which monitor and record all the action in a casino, which can be used to resolve some disputes. Some casinos usefacial recognition software to detect known cheats and criminals.[7]