Nevada on Campaign to Increase It's Infamous Casino Black Book Population

Nevada's Black book

If you didn't know it, the State of Nevada maintains a "Black Book" whose pages are filled with names of people who are permanently excluded from entering the state's casinos. If they enter and are caught, they are immediately arrested and charged with felony trespassing.

There are currently 32 people on what Nevada officially calls its "List of Excluded Persons." There were 33, but the recent death of notorious slot machine cheat John Vacaro (which, by the way, is the only way to get your name erased), the population is back to 32.

Now, however, the Nevada Gaming Commission wants to up that population. Feeling threatened by the increase in high-tech and casino-employee-insider cheating scams, they want to get the message out that if you screw around in casinos, you're gonna find yourself in their Black Book. Years ago you needed at least two felony gaming-related convictions to make the grade, but now you don't even need one. The Gaming Commission can place anyone on the list whom they feel is a threat to the integrity and safety of the Nevada Gaming Industry.

Just last year, famous gambler Archie Karas, a legend who once turned fifty bucks into $40 million in what is considered Las Vegas's hottest hot streak of all-time, was placed in the Black Book after being caught marking cards in California casino poker games. He'd had a few run-ins over blackjack cheating incidents before that.

My take: I think that putting Archie Karas in the Black Book is a little harsh as he doesn't seem like much of a threat to Nevada's gaming industry, but I agree that people who use high-tech equipment or corrupt dealers in furtherance of cheating scams should indeed be put on the excluded persons list.

I think that Phil Ivey is a good candidate for that list as he did corrupt dealers in the furtherance of his baccarat edge-sorting scams.