How do casino dealers know when somebody is counting cards?
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Dealers, pit bosses, and surveillance all know how to count cards as well. The dealer probably isn’t counting because they’ve got other things to do and, let’s face it, they’re most often minimum wage employees depending on tips – it’s not really in their job description to stop counters. They will, however, yell to notify the pit boss of weird moments, like an unusual double/split or a big bet change – that’s often a requirement of their job.
The pit boss or a surveillance person can definitely keep track once they’re suspicious, and take note of when the suspected counter is raising or lowering bets. If those coincide with the count going up and down, it’s pretty reasonable to assume they’re counting. And of course, they have databases and lists of known card counters, so somebody who has made a lot of money or done it a lot may very well be on their radar.
And of course, they don’t actually have to *prove* anything. Card counting isn’t illegal, they aren’t taking you to court. If they think you’re card counting and especially if you’re winning, they’re just going to (depending on jurisdiction) ask you to stop playing blackjack, or if they aren’t allowed to in their state/country, they’ll change the betting rules to eliminate any advantage anyways. None of that requires proof, they can do those things for basically any non-discriminatory reason.
If you’re counting and losing money, they’ll likely let you keep going – casinos have probably made more money on people who *think* they can count but mess up, more than they’ve ever lost to actual counters.
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