Blackjack Insider Newsletter, May 2003, #40

The Card Counter’s Guide to Casino Surveillance by DV Cellini (Huntington Press) has caused quite a stir in the blackjack world since its release late last year. Much has been made of the fact that information of this sort has never been made available to the public before. No less an authority than Arnold Snyder has hailed this volume as "the most important information for professional blackjack players to be published since the 1962 edition of Ed Thorp’s "Beat the Dealer". It is being touted as the one book the casino industry absolutely hated to see published.

All hype aside, this reviewer tends to agree that the information contained in Cellini’s book is new and unique. It definitely has value for the professional or black chip blackjack player who needs to disguise his skill from both the pit and the Eye in the Sky. The real value to the top BJ players is being able to recognize the way surveillance people think and react, what triggers scrutiny of one’s play and how to avoid it, and how to confuse the software into recording false results or at least fooling the people who interpret that data. In these areas the book gives invaluable insights. Such as this one from page 58:

Like many current BJ players, I would have thought that it would be easy for a surveillance operator to switch to a different camera and view the bets from a side angle. However, this reviewer had the opportunity to discuss some points with the author. Cellini debunks these suppositions. His contention is that most BJ Survey Voice run-downs are done after the fact. This means that the operator must rely only upon the fixed overhead camera shot, unless they were lucky enough to find a Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) camera that was aimed at this certain table at that particular time. This isn’t very likely. The "going to and from your wager" ploy might just work.

In our correspondence, Cellini debunks other myths as well. This reviewer was fortunate enough to have recently toured the surveillance room of a newly opened Strip resort. During the tour, our surveillance host told us that they could discern the stacked chips denominations by color as well as each chip’s particular side markings. A green chip has a different side pattern than a black chip, which is different than a red chip, etc.

Cellini believes that "the color cameras that have the ability to distinguish the cheques by color have a tendency to "bleed". This allows all the colors to clash and make the chips unrecognizable unless you have an astute surveillance team that takes the time to size every bet by zooming a camera onto the player’s betting circle before and after each bet. If the Eye is scrutinizing a player with this degree of heat in real time, that player is under major suspicion and will be cooked quickly anyway. Another little fact casinos like to keep secret is that when you’re looking at those "perfect 600 lines of resolution" pictures on the monitor, they’re being transmitted at 500 lines of resolution per inch, and then recorded at about 280 lines. Now add in the fact that the video tape used to record is not new and is subject to degradation after even 10 uses, and that most casinos push these tapes to over 52 passes before replacing them. So the video the surveillance operator views on the screen is degraded when they play the tape back. If you want proof of this, watch the Travel Channel’s Vegas Week. Look at the tape quality on the "taped scams" they show. You will see black and white video that is bleached out, and in the case of color video you’ll see every color of the spectrum bleeding over".

Another thing I believe is that dealers will usually stop to spread out a "barberpole" chip stack for the benefit of the Eye when making a payoff. This not only gives the camera a better look at the total bet amount you were trying to disguise, but it slows down the game as well – just what a card counter doesn’t want. Cellini contends that this is an "urban legend". He states "due to union fear, the dealers are now running the floor with little or no recourse from the pit bosses. Walk through a few casinos and watch for yourself. If the surveillance department is lucky enough to have a dealer that follows all the policies and procedures, a barberpole spread will happen so fast that the operator in the Eye cannot "call the ball". Most dealers size winning bets with no break-down, or they will drop-cut a payout, leaving surveillance in the dark".

Have no illusions about this 88-page book. Not all of Cellini’s observations are worth their weight in purple chips. It’s up to the reader to separate the wheat from the chaff, based upon his own experience and level of expertise. The author makes a few points that this reviewer finds hard to believe. Most flagrant is the author’s contention on page 59 that switching count systems in the middle of a shoe or session will confuse the BJ Survey Voice software.

As you may know, BJSV is a program into which the operator vocally recites every card value seen, and keys in the bet amounts made by the player to be reviewed. It can be used in real time while the player is at the blackjack table, or more commonly, the session tape is played back afterwards while the operator inputs card values and bet sizes for review of a suspected advantage player. The main result that it produces will show if the player’s bet amounts were correlated with the advantage a player may have at all given points through the deck(s) or shoe. Most of the popular count systems are similar in that they are able to identify when the player’s advantage occurs, and how much of an edge exists at the time. For example a 2% player advantage will be detected by the player and the software regardless which count system one is using. The player will put out his usual bet amount appropriate for that advantage. The player’s spread and top bet are noted. No matter which system is used, all count systems recommend bet amounts that are correlated to the advantage the player may have, not just the raw running or true count numbers that may differ for each system. It is the percent advantage correlated to the player’s relative bet amount that is measured by the BJSV program. This will always be similar, no matter what count system the player uses, or whether he switches counts in mid-shoe, or stays with the same system throughout.

Cellini contends the point he was trying to make is that by changing count systems and betting patterns (such as a win or lose progression), you will force the surveillance operators into thinking you’re a "systems" player. However, this reviewer still has doubts about the effort/reward ratio and effectiveness of this technique.

Here’s another excerpt from page 19:

Most savvy blackjack players already know that the threat of being discovered comes from the Eye above, not the pit. They also know that the skill evaluation of any player under suspicion of counting comes from the surveillance room and is relayed via phone to the pit. If the player can know the basic information the Eye uses for evaluation, he becomes better equipped to fool surveillance into believing he is no threat. This is the area in which the book has real value. With discipline and practice any motivated player can learn the mechanics of card counting rather easily. The hard part is projecting an act or persona that makes the pit and Eye comfortable with your play. This act allows you to play a winning game undetected and be welcomed back in order to keep playing, even at high stakes, a la Ian Andersen. If you are suspected, and have a "skills check" run by surveillance, the book is invaluable in showing techniques the player can employ to foil the evaluation.

One of the most valuable sections is the "21 Tells of a Card Counter" on page 51, a section that was singled out for publication in the Fall 2002 issue of Blackjack Forum. Many of these ‘tells" have to do with appearance and clothing, retrieving a big bet at the shuffle, ratholing chips, spreading to multiple hands only in plus counts, sitting out only on negative counts and the type of drinks ordered and whether you nurse a beer for a long time. Cellini contends that "beer drinkers don’t nurse." One minor fact that struck me was tell #6: "Player orders bottled water, coffee or a soft drink. Surveillance can tell the difference between a mixed drink glass and a soft drink glass. It’s the type of straw or glassware the casino uses at the tables that gives the glass’ contents away. This is an old casino secret."

Okay. That said, the main question remains: Is this book worth the hefty $99 price to the average card counter? As a serious recreational player who is presently moving up from red chip play to green, this reviewer must admit the book has opened my eyes to things every card counter should know about casino surveillance. Even though as an LVA member, I got the book at half-price, I consider the money well spent and would have spent the full $99 if I had to. This kind of information has never been made public before. To full time professionals or black spreading recreational counters the information in this book is invaluable and worth many times the actual retail price. If your top bet at a blackjack table is $100 or more, this book is worth way more than one top bet and will allow you to recoup the investment in longevity and EV rather quickly, while the information is yours to keep and know forever. If you’re strictly a red chip player whose top bet is less than $100, you can skip this purchase for now. Wait until you’re ready to increase stakes to low green before buying this book. And you better hope that by that time the surveillance departments have not also read the book and changed their methods accordingly.