In some countries there are two ways of getting things done - expeditiously or with great difficulty. The expeditious way often involves a "gift" of some description, the value of which is directly proportional to the service rendered.

This business culture is practiced from the moment you step into the immigration hall to the moment you leave the gate lounge on your way home. It is practiced by all classes, from the garbage collector up to the highest levels of government and industry.

Some cultures consider this to be a perfectly normal and acceptable way to do business. In Australia we call it bribery and corruption and you go to jail for practicing it.

Multiculturalism has brought many benefits to the Australian way of life; this particular business practice is not one of them. Like it or not, in Australia, bribery and corruption, or in the case of the casino industry 'a little inside help' is on the increase.

The casino industry is particularly vulnerable to employees that subscribe to this business ethic. There have been many instances of player/employee collusion detected by casino surveillance staff over the last couple of years but to my mind these scams have not been particularly well planned or executed. This is not to say that they have not been extremely lucrative for their practitioners.

A scam comprising a well thought out plan, well trained operatives (on both sides of the table) and sophisticated electronics would be nigh on impossible to detect.

Many teams, particularly some Asian ones that I know of personally, possess the ethic, ability, personnel and hardware to mount such a scam. Many of them are uncovered due to crudeness and unprofessional execution but it goes deeper than this. Most of the scam practitioners detected to date have been greedy.

Acceptable Tolerances

Everything around us operates on tolerances. Even the components in the space shuttle are not perfect; they are built to within acceptable tolerances.

When industry takes stock it accepts figures that are up or down within acceptable tolerances

The traffic cop will allow you to exceed the speed limit within certain tolerances

Sophisticated tracking algorithms will flag a game that loses more than it should, within certain tolerances

Put yourself in the position of the person organizing a casino scam. Let's go through the steps.

1. Casino staff have been selected and trained
2. Players have been trained in all aspects of the operation including electronic hardware
3. The game has been selected and the methods to beat it fully tested

Now let's look at the logistics of it all.

You could mount a commando-like raid - swoop, net a quick couple of million, get out before the casino knows what's hit them.

Generally this is not a smart approach because it has no future. One or two casinos get hit and the scam is on the worldwide casino surveillance network and that's the end of it. Sooner or later you run out of scams.

A much smarter approach would involve taking just enough money off the tables to be within acceptable tolerances (standard deviation), or at worst just cause a minor bump in the casino's expectation graph.

This method is much more conducive to longevity and can be run in many casinos around the world either simultaneously or in sequence.

A well-executed and managed scam could go unnoticed indefinitely. Take blackjack hold figures for example, they usually start off high in a new casino and then drop off a bit as time goes by. This is usually attributed to players becoming smarter but could also be explained by the fact that you have unknowingly taken on a partner in the form of a professional team.

Baccarat tracking software is an extremely useful tool to the casino operator but the turnover required for actual return to equal mathematical expectation is enormous and leaves plenty of room to skim a little off the top.

In the past a very clear line separated professional advantage players from professional cheats using inside help. Over the last few years or so that line has faded to the point that today, it is almost indistinguishable. This phenomena may be due to changing cultural values or to the fact that casinos are getting smarter and making life harder…...whatever the reasons it is a very disturbing trend.

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