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What's Legal and What's Not in a Casino?

Knowing what you can or cannot do in a real brick and mortar casino can not only save you some embarrassment, it can also save you some serious money. I have heard a few complaints from people who left the casino with chips of a certain value in their pockets ($10 to $50) only to return the following day and not have it accepted by the casino staff. They could cash it in only for the minimal value only. While it may seem unfair that the player be treated like this, from the casino's perspective it is the only possible way to stay fraud-free. The chips that are assigned certain vales at the tables do not necessarily have the same value the following day. All the casino has is the player's word, and that is simply not enough. Buying the chips for their minimal value makes perfect sense because that excludes the possibility that the casino be tricked by the player. The lesson to learn here is: never take a chip out of a casino. Always cash all your chips in when you leave. It only makes sense to smuggle a chip out of the building if you plan on taking it home as a souvenir, but I'm not sure whether that's legal at all, either. If you want to stay safe, legal and certain that you're not getting short-changed, keep the chips where they belong, inside the casino.

Another matter, often subject to debate, is whether card-counting in blackjack is legal or not. The legality of someone using nothing but their brains and abilities to gain an edge at anything can hardly be questioned. If card counting were illegal from the state's perspective, they'd probably have to make it illegal to go to school too, because all you do in both cases is use, or learn how to use your brain.

From the casino's perspective, on the other hand, card counting is one of the most serious offenses a player can commit. Remember that there is 24/7 video surveillance inside a casino at every table, and there are trained eyes watching your every move, especially if you draw attention to yourself by winning too much. In such cases, if casino personnel begins to suspect you of card-counting, you'll promptly be escorted either out of the establishment, or to another table where your skills do not help you. This is by no means a fair approach for several reasons. First of all, playing while using only what nature endowed you with cannot, will not, and should not be considered cheating, regardless of the circumstances. Second: casinos gain so much on unskilled, uninformed and clueless gamblers that dealing with a couple of card counters every now and then shouldn't pose a strain on their finances.

Because of these reasons, some casinos are conditioned by law to differentiate between cheaters and card counters, and to leave the latter alone. Such casinos usually have some very strict rules in place for blackjack, using multiple decks and generally doing everything in their power to limit the card-counter's odds.

Online casinos do not present such problems. The RNG (Random Number Generator) can reshuffle a deck in a tenth of a second. So there's no need for multiple decks to start with. The same deck is reshuffled over and over, and if multiple decks are needed they can be implemented too. Card counters do not stand a chance in an online casino. Remember this if you consider yourself a successful blackjack player and you plan to take your game online.

From the casino operator's point of view, the house edge is sacred. Do not tamper with it (at most games you can't), and you'll be OK. Employees of a casino are not permitted to play there either, and if they do play and win, they'll have to forfeit all their winnings. Just about the only game where it is legal to secure a positive edge, is poker. Most of the biggest live casinos have poker rooms as well. In poker, players play each-other, the house collects the rake and has no direct interest in the odds involved. You won't get a rakeback deal at any of these casinos, however, if you're a good enough player, you will certainly enjoy a positive EV experience for a change.

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