The ancient art of gambling, love it or hate it, the games are here to stay. Some nations make the practice illegal, whilst in others it’s only allowed in certain areas. Gambling is legal everywhere in Australia, and over 80% of Australian adults play in the country’s many popular casinos. In fact, Australia currently has the highest rate of gambling worldwide, making Las Vegas and Monte-Carlo lower their heads in shame. There are positives and negatives in this mental money sport, nothing beats the thrill of a big win, whilst losing everything but the shirt on your back remains a deeply humiliating defeat. Lady Luck is a fickle date, and she doesn’t always dance with who brought her, but she’s so much fun that we just can’t resist her temptations. And, since there’s money involved, you can be sure that someone is going to cheat for the win and either walk away richer or get caught and face the consequences. If you have ever wondered how casino cheats and scams work, then let’s take a look behind the curtain at some of these shady dealings and what can be done to thwart them.
These days thanks to modern technology being a casino cheat has become a whole lot harder. For example, once a scoundrel has been caught in the act their picture is taken with a facial recognition camera for posterity, and a permanent record is made of it. Not only will the automated detection system flag them as they enter the lobby next time, where they will be gently escorted out by the security staff, but their image will be shared with a network so the same thing happens to them in any other casinos they try to visit! It used to be crooks were caught red-handed, but now we can add red-faced to the list.
So, even though the odds are getting steeper against cheats, this is gambling after all, so somebody’s going to still try it. One of the favourite scams people attempt to pull is the esoteric dark art of card counting. In a nutshell, card counting is a blackjack strategy in which the player counts the number of cards considered to be of high value to him and of low value to the dealer, then bets when he thinks he has the advantage. If you understand exactly how it works please explain it to me, all I know is the dealers are on to it and those who attempt it are gently escorted out of the building by security.
Another cheater favourite is slot machine fraud. Back when the machines were made of actual machinery like gears and pulleys this was fairly easy to do, but with the advent of completely electronic slots it’s become virtually impossible to tamper with the hardware and software thanks to advanced cyber security measures. Also be sure to smile, you’re on camera!
Australia has strict gambling regulations in place so be aware if you decide to dabble. No cheating!