How Casinos Know That Players Are Counting Cards

Written By Alla Levin
August 14, 2020

How Casinos Know That Players Are Counting Cards

Counting Cards is a casino card game strategy used to determine whether the next hand is likely to give a probable advantage to the player or the dealer.

While many players struggle to remember the cards they were dealt with in the previous hand, there are some players that are skilled enough to do card counting in the game of Blackjack.

The game of online Blackjack at Monster Casino website and other online casino sites makes the use of a Random Number Generator to generate the outcome.

So, online gambling sites don’t have to worry about players counting cards.

But land-based casinos have to employ various measures to stop these players from getting a one over them at the table.

Read on to know how casinos can detect card counting.

Counting Cards: Player Behavior

The first method employed by casinos in an attempt to thwart card counters is monitoring their behavior at the Blackjack table.

This is the task of several people at the gambling venue, starting with the dealer, followed by pit bosses and the casino’s security personnel.

There are various player behaviors that people working at the casino lookout for. They include:

  • Buying-in in huge amounts
  • Dramatic changes in bet types
  • Playing numerous hands at the same time
  • Not making the use of basic strategy
  • Jumping from one table to another

Anti-card counting technology

Casino technology has advanced at an astonishing rate in recent years, and it’s now being used to give casinos a more accurate take on the behavior of the players.

In essence, technology is used to see which players are playing accurate games.

A card counter will only ever follow the math as they’re playing, allowing the swings at the table to decide whether they place a bet or not.

On the other hand, regular players will bet larger or smaller amounts depending on how they feel the cards are falling.

If they have won consistently, they might feel that they’re experiencing a winning streak, whilst if they haven’t won in a while, they may think that they need to place bets conservatively.

What the casinos might do to prevent people from trying to count

Here are some other things that the casino might do to prevent players from counting cards at the Blackjack table.

Use automatic shuffling machine

Automatic shuffling machines make card counting useless and the only plays that can be made are between standing hitting 16 against a 10.

If in case the deck resets, then the shoe will never be good enough for the players at the table to raise bets.

Most players tend to hate these machines.

Make the rules worse

Another method employed by casinos to stop players from counting cards at the table is making the rules worse.

For example, casinos can remove doubling after a split or eliminate late surrender to increase the house edge.

Plus, if they change the payout to 6:5, then, most counters won’t play unless there’s a single deck and the penetration is 90%. 

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