The Sunday Tasmanian - March 18, 1990

Casinos Australia-wide are on the alert for a new, compact computer device they were involved in developing but which now could send them broke.

The Western Australia-based company Surveillance Technology has developed the device, which it says allows a complete novice to win consistently at blackjack without being detected by surveillance or gaming personnel.

A similar device was used a year ago by a pair of high-rolling Austrian blackjack players to win more than $190,000 from the Wrest Point Federal Hotel-Casino in Hobart. Because there was no State law covering the use of the computer, the pair walked away scot-free. It is the same legal situation in other States.

Ironically, the computer - called the Scorpion - was developed by Surveillance Technology after an approach from Perth's Burswood Resort Casino to develop a device to detect card-counting computers. In order to develop the detector, the company had to first invent the computer to test it. When the casino would not contribute to the $100,000 cost, the company decided to market the computer separately. "Having spent all your time dealing with security matters, it is strange to come at it from the other side," the owner of the company and developer of the device, Mr Michael Barnett, said in Perth yesterday.

The computer, which would be marketed for about $5000, was aimed at high-rollers prepared to bet solidly for a number of hours with high stakes. "However, it is still possible to bet with more moderate stakes and come out ahead," Mr Barnett said. "You can be blind or blind drunk and still win."

"Tests over tens of thousands of hands indicate an advantage of 2 per cent or better." That is enough to force blackjack out of casinos across Australia because it no longer would be profitable for them.

Mr Barnett said the Scorpion was not a cheating device. It did not affect the outcome but predicted it. The device silently instructed the player on each and every move, including money management, according to the dealer's "up" card and the cards remaining in the card shoe and advised when conditions were not favourable to the player.

A confidential memo obtained by The Sunday Tasmanian from the surveillance manager at Sheraton Breakwater Casino-Hotel in Queensland, Mr Ken Harrison, to all Australian casino security managers warns about the Scorpion's powers. It goes on to say that Mr Barnett is technically able both to do all he says or to instruct some other person to develop his ideas and is "obviously a man who can be extremely dangerous to our industry, especially with the law only providing barring and confiscation for persons using such a device.

The security manager at Wrest Point, Ms Marion Hayes, said she was aware of the Scorpion but at the moment it was not against the law. However, anyone caught using the device would be asked to leave and could be required to pay back a part of winnings.

While using the computer on the casino floor may attract attention and result in the user being removed, the Scorpion's inventor believes he has come up with the answer to that too. He says the computer also can be used from a hotel room or the car park with radio signals going to and from the gaming table.

A team would include three people - one player at the table, one onlooker to relay to the computer the sequence of cards through a push-button device about the size of a 20c coin, and an operator of the computer. The computer would radio instructions back to the player by means of a vibrating system attached to the upper arm.

While seeing the blackjack computer as a bit old-hat Mr Barnett is extremely excited about a new device for roulette which he has developed using NASA technology. The device has been built to be used on the Huxley roulette wheel used widely in Australian casinos and is based on the timing of the ball and the wheel spin. After the player enters the time it takes for the ball and wheel to spin, the device can estimate to within a three-number area where the ball will drop.

Mr Barnett said the company had held off marketing the roulette device following a request from the Western Australian Gaming Commission.

A Tasmanian Government spokesman said yesterday that the issue of gaming computers would be discussed by Cabinet soon.