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A blackjack dealer deals cards from a shoe at a local casino. Some gamblers argue a rule that lets dealers reshuffle blackjack decks at any time during the game puts players at an unfair disadvantage. Keith Copher, chief of the state Gaming Control Board's enforcement division, said as long as shuffling early doesn't violate the casino's house rules, it's allowed. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Saturday, August 18, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

IN THE CARDS: Shuffling rules have bettors ruffled

Players say at-will remixing of cards amounts to cheating

Nevada casinos are allowed by state gaming regulators to reshuffle blackjack decks any time during a game, a practice that some critics charge is state-condoned cheating.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has received several inquiries about the technique in recent years.

"We've heard talk about it. I'm sure it's (been) going on for a long time, but there's been no evidence that it's cheating or any violation of any regulations," said Keith Copher, chief of the control board's enforcement division, noting that casino operators can shuffle a deck any time they wish.

"As long as shuffling early doesn't violate the casino's house rules, it's allowed."

But Anthony Curtis, a former professional blackjack player and publisher of Las Vegas-based Huntington Press, questioned the wisdom of the practice known as preferential shuffling.

"Any place that's actually counting the deck is hurting the game," Curtis said. "They're supposed to deal the game in a random manner. If the casino's counting and reshuffling early just because the player has an advantage, it's tantamount to cheating."

An unknown number of the state's casinos reshuffle the decks early to prevent gamblers from holding any advantage at some of Nevada's 3,534 blackjack tables, gamblers charge.

The state's casinos won $1.2 billion from blackjack players during the 12 months ended June 30, according to control board figures.

Copher was unable Friday to say how many inquiries the control board has received about the practice.

"There's so few I can think of, maybe one or two," he said. "The players appear to talk about it and complain about it among themselves more than with the gaming control board.

"We check the complaint out, but usually we have to say that (preferential shuffling) doesn't violate the house rules, so there's not much we can do. It wouldn't be very good for the casino to do it, though."

When the cards are first shuffled in blackjack, the casino enjoys a slim advantage over a gambler.

The house should win slightly more than 50 percent of the money bet, depending on the number of decks used and the games' rules.

Once the dealer starts passing out cards in a blackjack game, the house's theoretical advantage changes with every new card.

When the remaining cards in the deck include a higher than usual proportion of aces, face cards and 10s, the house advantage swings toward the player.

The casino's advantage increases when the proportion of threes, fours, fives and sixes increases among the undealt cards.

Card counters make money on the game by increasing their bets when a deck's remaining cards are favorable to the player, and betting a smaller amount or leaving the game when the advantage favors the house.

Many Strip casinos employ continuous shuffling machines, which reshuffle the blackjack game's cards after every hand, to make card counting impossible.

Dealers are also allowed to manually reshuffle the cards at will.

"There have been cases of the casinos reshuffling because either the dealer, a floor person, a pit boss or someone in surveillance is counting," Curtis said. "It's not fair."

State regulators permit casino operators to ask card counters to leave gaming properties.

MGM Grand Vice President of Casino Operations Debi Nutton said dealers at her property don't shuffle early unless gamblers request the move.

"We would never ever do that," Nutton said. "If you had a reputation for shuffling early, you'd lose your customers. Customers are smart. Besides, our floorpersons and dealers are too busy doing their jobs to have time to count cards."

MGM Grand dealers routinely reshuffle a double-deck deal or a six-deck shoe when nearly 70 percent of the cards have been dealt, Nutton noted.

Control board member Scott Scherer said casinos were unlikely to preferentially shuffle very often because the practice reduces the number of hands dealt, potentially costing a casino money.

"There's a cost to shuffling," Scherer said.

Scherer, who joined the control board earlier this year after serving as chief of staff to Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, has delivered several recent speeches in which he argues that the state's casinos must maintain a reputation for operating fair games.

Meantime, Scherer said he doesn't believe that preferential shuffling is commonplace.

"If it were a widespread problem, I'd want to take a look at it," he said.