Now Offering Private Beat-the-Heat Blackjack Card-Counting and Advantage-Play Courses by Skype!

If you want to learn the art, take advantage of this terrific opportunity to get one-up on the blackjack tables. A four-day comprehensive course is priced at $500. A two-day course is $200. Both courses cover all the basics and intricacies of the best casino card-counting and advantage-play techniques. The three-day course gets into more details including internal-security measures needed when playing and more intensive training.

To get the full description of these courses, please go to my card-counting website page. If you want to book either course, contact me for scheduling.

Are Blackjack card-counting and hole-carding considered cheating in casinos?

Legal Peeking?

Card-counting at blackjack is absolutely NOT considered cheating in casinos by any casino jurisdiction that I´ve heard of. 

Blackjack hole-carding, however, is in a much grayer area. There is no doubt that those blackjack players seeking to gain an advantage over the casino by willfully peeking at dealers' hole-cards are attempting to cheat by definition, but the actual carrying-out of the process leaves things much less clear. The obvious argument against hole-carding being cheating is that the blackjack hole-carding player is simply taking advantage of the dealers who expose their hole-cards due to sloppiness and lack of following proper dealing procedure. They don't do anything to cause the dealer to expose their hole-card, even if their intent was to find a dealer that indeed does so. 

This argument does hold water.

There have been some arrests of blackjack players for hole-carding, mostly in Nevada, but I am not aware of any convictions or plea-bargains by those guilty of doing so. So in summation, I guess you are pretty safe when hole-carding at blackjack, even though it is getting harder and harder to find good opportunities to do so in light of the dwindling availability of hand-held blackjack games across the casino world.

Now Offering Private Beat-the-Heat Blackjack Card-counting and Advantage-Play Courses by Skype!

If you want to learn the art, take advantage of this terrific opportunity to get one-up on the blackjack tables. A four-day comprehensive course is priced at $500. A two-day course is $200. Both courses cover all the basics and intricacies of the best casino card-counting and advantage-play techniques. The three-day course gets into more details including internal-security measures needed when playing and more intensive training. To get the full description of these courses, please go to my card-counting website page. If you want to book either course, contact me for scheduling.

Game Protection Blog Coming Soon!

Game Protection.

For all you casino executives and floor supervisors who want to get the latest in game protection news from a source other than the World Game Protection website, a new one is coming! It is a new blog and it will be simply be called "The Table Game Protection Blog. It will discuss all matters relating to Game Protection inside land-based casinos, and it will give NEW informative information from Richard Marcus, someone who really knows all aspects of game protection from both sides of the table, meaning through the eyes of the casino on one side and the eyes of a casino-cheat and advantage-player on the other.

This blog will also be of help on matters concerning whom you hire for game-protection services at your casino.

Stay tuned!

Is Daily Fantasy Sports Becoming Illegal in the USA?

Daily fantasy sports betting has become one of the great ways for fans to bet and make money without a long term commitment. Traditional sports betting would require bettors to follow an entire season, but with daily fantasy sports, bettors can bet on multiple events on any day and win immediately after the event ends. The Wall Street Journal has covered this topic and despite the growing interest and popularity of daily fantasy sports betting, it remains an activity that is under much debate in the USA. The business model of daily fantasy sports betting sites have been investigated and that has raised some questions pertaining to the legality of this form of betting. The arguments from FanDuel and DraftKings, both US based companies, is that fantasy sports betting is a game of skill, Since it is not based on luck, it is exempt under the 2006 UIGEA law. It is still a grey area and it is up to each individual US state to allow or ban daily fantasy sports betting.

Betting sites like FanDuel and DraftKings have been advertising to US residents during football games, since the NFL season has just started. This raised a red flag and the legality of these sites is now being questioned. These billion dollar companies may be a household brand name, but they cannot stay under the radar and the explosion of ads and interest has lead to some serious investigating on whether daily fantasy sports  betting is a form of gambling.

Sports Betting Laws per State

The US has recently loosened the laws pertaining to online gambling, but each state has the ability to legalise or ban any online betting. In Nevada, the gaming board deemed sports betting is considered gambling and fantasy sports betting is not covered under the current gambling laws in Nevada. Nevada does offer online gambling at sites that are licensed by the state. At this time, there are no sports betting sites registered or licensed in Nevada, which means that any form of sports betting is in fact illegal.

In Massachusetts, there has been some upset and misunderstandings regarding sports betting since the popular Boston based DraftKings site has been advertising services to US bettors. Based on a recent article in the Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Law prohibits and form of gambling unless it is allowed by the Legislature. Even with the popularity of sports betting, daily fantasy sports sites cannot operate in Massachusetts legally.

Taking the Daily Fantasy Sports Offshore Online

It is quite evident that daily fantasy sports betting is a topic of great debate. Until the dust settles and the laws are clear, a number of US residents are seeking gambling action offshore. At sites that are licensed and regulated in other countries, bettors can enjoy sports betting and other forms of gambling online. The problem of UIGEA is still there and US gamblers have to find alternative ways to deposit funds at these offshore sites. A number of other countries, including Australia, have created laws similar to UIGEA in hoped of deterring residents from engaging in online gambling activities. However, with the offering of prepaid cards and some ewallets, residents of these countries still have the ability to register at offshore sites and enjoy gambling activities.

Understanding UIGEA

In 2006, the US government passed the UIGEA Act of 2006 and this regulation has been the cause of many problems faces by US gamblers. The Act made it impossible for US bettors to use their credit or debit cards to fund off shore casino accounts. Banks and financial establishments are not allowed to process any payment to or from an online casino for any US resident. However, the recent changes in law has allowed individual states the ability to choose whether they will legalise online casinos and gambling for residents. UIGEA is still in place, which is making it difficult for certain players who are accessing online casinos in states that have legalised online gambling.

Hot Trailer to National Geographic Underworld Inc. Las Vegas Hustle Episode!

Chips will be flying!

See this clip and don't miss the episode! It airs Wednesday, October 21 on the National Geographic (NatGeo) Channel. Also, be sure to read the two posts directly below and get some insight into the show and the REAL casino cheats who will be profiled.

Ace Face and Bim to perform Savannah Roulette Move in front of Millions!

Bim and Ace Face

It's true! They will appear on National Geographic's "Underworld Inc." series this Wednesday night, October 21. The name of the show is "Las Vegas Hustle." See trailer here.

You wanna know more about Ace Face and Bim? Here's the real scoop! I did work with them both back in the ´80s and ´90s. In fact, Ace Face is one of the early pioneers of the Ten-O-Five Blackjack Move, which he will also be doing on the Underworld Inc. Las Vegas Hustle TV show. He was simply the best at it, and with his cool, handsome James Bond demeanor, he did a number across the blackjack tables from Las Vegas to London, really terrorizing casinos worldwide..

Bim, whom we actually did call "Bim" back in the day and still do, is a really incredible character. Such is how he got his nickname "Bim." The name is a chopped version of "bimbo," although Bim is not at all a bimbo. He´s just a bim! I guess you gotta spend some time with him to get what I mean.

I will tell you this, however: Bim is always so stoned that he can smoke any Rasti in Jamaica under the table at any time!!! And the more stoned he was, the more he kicked the casino's ass!!! Another thing I can tell you about the Bim: he had absolutely no fear of anything! I used to joke with him," Bim, you're scared shit of these casinos, aren't you?" And he'd chuckle and say, "petrified!" I don't know why he had such balls and no fear, but maybe it was due to his being too stoned all the time to interpret fear???

Ace Face and Bim were not around during the inception of the famous Savannah move but they knew a great thing when they saw it, so they initiated their own Savannah road tour in the late '90s just as I was getting ready to retire. They had it down to a tee and Bim had no trouble playing the drunk-role as he was always already stoned! And to all of you who constantly ask me if the Savannah move can still be done in today's casinos, this should suffice as the answer!

As I was told, Ace Face was out fishing when Bim told him about the Savannah move. With the rod in his hand and a big-one dangling from the hook, Ace Face decided to drop the line in the water, row the friggin´ boat back to sure and get on the next plane to Vegas!

Can't wait to see the show. And neither can you!!!

National Geographic to Air TV Show on Savannah and Ten-O-Five Blackjack Moves!

NatGeo TV shot

Well, of all the casino-cheat TV shows, this one promises to be the best! It is part of the new and hot National Geographic "Underworld Inc." series which airs every Wednesday night on the NatGeo channel at 10 pm EST.

This episode,called "Las Vegas Hustle" airs this coming Wednesday, October 21st at 10 pm EST. Check your local listings for the time in your area.

I am told that a NatGeo film crew followed a two-man cheat-team,both of whom worked with me years ago, as they practiced their moves and entered Las Vegas casinos to do them.They did both the Savannah roulette move and the Ten-O-Five blackjack move. Read about both those moves here and here.

I was contacted by the NatGeo Production company and I varified that both the cheats depicted in the program are real and worked with me in the past,and are a big part of my cheating-memoirs "American Roulette."

This show should be a blast! Don't miss it!!!

New False-Shuffle Baccarat Scams Appearing in Asian and US Casinos

Ever since the infamous Tran Organization false-shuffle baccarat scam that corrupted dealers and floor personnel across the US and Canada, beating casinos for some $30 million over a five-year period, every Tom, Dick and Harry casino-cheat and their girlfriends and families have seemingly jumped on the min-baccarat cheating wagon. Just in the last month alone we have seen major cases netting several hundreds of thousands of dollars in several casinos worldwide. These scams continue ramping-up in Asia, especially Singapore, where the crooked dealers and their cohorts seem to be false-shuffling as much as their real-shuffling!

Accounts of the same-type scams are coming in From Ohio,Texas and Louisiana as well. And if this isn´t enough the dealer-agent pastposting scams are also reeling and rocking casinos in the US, especailly at craps and roulette tables, where dealers are just simply looking the other way while their cohorts are adding chips to bets that have already one. Some of these instances are so amateurish that I can hardly believe the six-figure sums coming off the tables in individual casinos.

When will it stop?

Probably never.

Phil Ivey´s Edge-Sorting Casino Baccarat Cheating Case Getting Interesting!

Ivey and his foxy partner in crime cheng Yin Sun have hit the Atlantic City Borgata Casino with a nice little countersuit after that casino had sued the pair for recovery of almost $10 million they took of the baccarat tables by a cheating technque known as "edge-sorting."

Law360, New York (July 27, 2015, 4:20 PM ET) -- A pair of professional pokers players accused of exploiting defective playing cards to cheat Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa out of $9.6 million, told a New Jersey federal judge last week that the casino knew the cards were defective and intentionally destroyed evidence. 

Professional poker player Phil Ivey and a partner allegedly used a technique known as “edge-sorting” to gain the unfair advantage over Atlantic City’s Borgata, raking in $9.6 million. (Credit: AP)

Phillip Ivey and Cheng Yin Sun filed an answer and counterclaim against the casino July 22, seeking to have the claims against them dismissed and to be awarded damages and attorneys' fees for the defense of what they claim is a “frivolous” lawsuit. The players, who are accused of using inconsistent markings on the backs of cards to cheat at baccarat, said the casino knew the cards contained defects but chose to use them anyway.

“Plaintiff’s claims against defendants were waived knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily by the plaintiff, given plaintiff’s knowledge that each deck of playing cards contained industry tolerances with regard to the design backs of its playing cards, and plaintiff did nonetheless and with complete knowledge of those variances place those cards into play on each and every trip of defendants’ play,” the answer and counterclaim said.

Ivey and Sun also said the casino inspected the cards used during the games they allegedly won by cheating, but rather than preserve the decks for evidence, the casino intentionally destroyed the cards.

“Notwithstanding plaintiff’s absolute legal obligation and duty to maintain, preserve and present that evidence in the instant litigation, knowing that defendants could not reasonably obtain access to that very evidence from any other source, plaintiff has intentionally destroyed all such evidence for the purpose of obstructing, disrupting and eviscerating the defendants’ ability to prove the lack of any defective cards utilized by the plaintiff from April through July of 2012,” they wrote.

The pair included counterclaims against the casino for fraudulent concealment by way of intentional spoliation of evidence and negligent spoliation of evidence. The players also wrote that if anyone should be held liable for the claims made by Borgota, it should be Gemaco Inc., the company that makes the cards and is also named as a defendant in the suit.

“While defendants Ivey and Sun deny any and all liability, obligation or damage to the plaintiff, and deny any negligence in any regard to the plaintiff, they assert that their negligence, if any, was passive, vicarious and imputed, whereas the negligence of co-defendant Gemaco Inc., was active and primary.”

According to the complaint, Ivey and Sun — a professional gambler who has been banned from several casinos around the world and who accompanied Ivey during all four sessions — used a technique known as “edge-sorting” to gain the unfair advantage over the casino. Because the Gemaco cards were not cut symmetrically during the manufacturing process, Ivey and Sun were able to exploit the manufacturing defects to “mark” the cards without actually touching or defacing them.

Mini Baccarat is a game of chance in which players bet on the relative value of two hands of two cards each before the hands are dealt or the cards are revealed, according to the complaint. The game is generally played with six or eight decks of cards placed into a dealing “shoe,” and its object is to bet on the hand that will have a total value closest to nine. If a player knows the value of the first card in the shoe before it’s dealt, the player has a significant advantage over the house, the complaint said.

The casino says Ivey negotiated special arrangements to play the game during four sessions in 2012, under the pretext for some of the requests that he was superstitious. The pair used the accommodations — including using an automatic card shuffling device, having Sun as a guest at the table while Ivey played and being provided with one eight-deck shoe of purple Gemaco Borgata playing cards — to “turn” strategically important cards so that they could be distinguished from other cards in the deck, Borgata said.

Their manipulative scheme changed the overall odds of the game from about a 1.06 house advantage to about a 6.765 advantage for Ivey, Borgata said.

The suit survived a dismissal bid earlier this year.

An attorney for Ivey and Sun could not be reached for comment Monday. Gemaco and an attorney for the Borgata could also not be reached for comment.

Ivey and Sun are represented by Edwin J. Jacobs Jr. and Louis M. Barbone of Jacobs & Barbone PA.

Borgata is represented by Jeremy M. Klausner of Agostino and Associates PC.

My take: Well, Ivey and his attorneys are surely getting crafty here, but the reality is: whether the casino knew  the cards were defective or not has no bearing on the fact that Ivey´s intent was to cheat. And I hardly believe the casino actually did know the cards were defective.