>7. To manipulate, with the intent to cheat, any component of a gaming device in a manner contrary to the designed and normal operational purpose for the component, including, but not limited to, varying the pull of the handle of a slot machine, with knowledge that the manipulation affects the outcome of the game or with knowledge of any event that affects the outcome of the game.
In general you are not allowed to do anything clever in a casino. It isn't stated as such, but the actual crime is winning consistently. If you walk into a casino certain that you will not be providing the house with their cut then you will almost for sure run up against some law. Extra laws will be generated as required by the governments involved.
Seems like you are free to believe in any fantasy about you having an edge over the house, except when that belief happens to be true. The mere thought of having a streak of luck would make winning illegal. If thoughtcrimes were animals, this would be a cute little kitty.
This is a pretty common pattern in "intent" crimes. As a simple example: attempted murder requires a potentially-effective plan. Shooting at someone and missing is attempted murder, burning a voodoo doll of them is not - no matter how sincerely you expect it to work.
It does produce an odd situation where stupidity becomes a legal defense, but the basis for it is pretty understandable. It's not criminalizing being right, it's decriminalizing being wrong, presumably because it's too hard to define the boundaries of whether something useless was done with real intent.
Lets say I am completely mistaken about how chemistry works and I think that adding salt to wine will somehow make it a deadly cocktail. With intent to kill you I make such a concoction and serve it to you.
In that case I should still be able to be punished under the law.
It does seem like the sort of thing that ought to be illegal somehow, but I'd need an actual expert's input on what charges they would seek for that.
It's right in a game-theory sense, but not a practical one. Proving intent to a jury is based on circumstantial evidence. Shooting a gun at someone is strong evidence of intent to murder because it is widely known that guns are lethal. Countering the weight of that evidence would require very convincing evidence that the shooter did not believe his actions would be lethal. Proving that someone believed burning a voodoo doll would be lethal would be very difficult since it is widely known that burning voodoo dolls is not lethal. Even apparent evidence that the voodoo practitioner had a genuine belief is easily played off as an act, and in criminal law, the benefit of the doubt goes to the defendant.
There's also the matter of people having mistaken beliefs about the probability of punishment.
Where I live, many bars have 8 line slot machines that are ostensibly "For Amusement Only" but they pay out when people win (and if they know you).
If you win too much, you'll be banned from playing.
Just knowing when to raise your bet does a lot to tip the odds in your favor.
I actually did something like that once. A store I visited put a link to a survey on its receipt with an offer of $10 off any one item on completion. I completed the survey on my phone, which displayed a barcode they could scan and selected a sub-$10 item. The receipt for my free item had a link to a survey....
I limited myself to a few items I actually had a use for. They would have been well within their rights to cut me off after a while, but certainly not to have me charged with a crime.
Bingo. :-)
" NRS 465.075 Use or possession of device, software or hardware to obtain advantage at playing game prohibited. It is unlawful for any person to use, possess with the intent to use or assist another person in using or possessing with the intent to use any computerized, electronic, electrical or mechanical device, or any software or hardware, or any combination thereof, which is designed, constructed, altered or programmed to obtain an advantage at playing any game in a licensed gaming establishment or any game that is offered by a licensee or affiliate, including, without limitation, a device that:
1. Projects the outcome of the game;
2. Keeps track of cards played or cards prepared for play in the game;
3. Analyzes the probability of the occurrence of an event relating to the game; or
4. Analyzes the strategy for playing or betting to be used in the game,
(Added to NRS by 1985, 970; A 2011, 216; 2013, 1317)"
Funny the article gave independent confirmation of about how much you could take out of a casino without them noticing; an important number if you ever develop a scheme.
> I know you are allowed to use those blackjack cheat cards at the tables in Las Vegas but what if I started using a calculator and my own crazy algorithm? Is that fraud?
They're not really "cheat" cards: even with a perfect strategy, blackjack still has a (very small) house edge. That's why casinos have no problem with you using them. And if you brought your own, hand-written, crazy algorithm the casino would probably let you play with it - because chances are it's much worse than the perfect strategy the printed card uses (a lot of blackjack players operate under the principle that the previous player's actions influence the game and adopt some pretty stupid strategies as a result).
However, the casino almost certainly wouldn't let you use a calculator, because they'll think you might be using it to count cards. That's why you can't use a phone at the table. Ditto for this:
> What if I had an ear piece and hidden camera glasses to stream video to some blackjack guru outside in a van?
...but the casino would certainly let someone next to you give you advice or help, because unless that person is counting cards they're still going to have a house edge (and it's pretty easy to tell when someone is counting, because you'll start making plays that would otherwise be in the house's favor).
Note that counting cards in blackjack isn't fraudulent in most cases - it's just one the casino cottons on that you're doing it they'll ask you to leave or stop playing. Outright fraud in blackjack would involve something like having the dealer in on the scheme, or using a marked deck of cards.
And maybe not even then. With the incomplete mitigations that casinos already put in for card-counting (multiple decks, etc.), card-counting is tricky and has a very small edge. Consequently, just as casinos know they make money from people with "strategies" with no statistical validity, they know they make money from people who think they can count cards well enough to get an edge but who can't.
Make an error or two (vs. perfect counting strategy), and they'll let you keep going, because long-term they'll still have an edge. Count/play perfectly and you'll get backed off or 86'ed.
Obviously errors aren't sustainable, since the edge is so small, but I wonder if it might be possible to open with an error so you can stick around a little longer before someone checks back in and bars you. More broadly - are counters these days trying not to get noticed, or trying not to get banned?
It really depends on what type of game you are trying to cheat if you are avoiding detection or avoiding a ban. With slot machines, if they think you are up to any mischief, you will face legal issues. As for cards, the casino is going to be aware of your activities if they have any inkling of things like card counting. The dealers know what to look for and you will be watched. The casino is just trying to make sure you don't take too much from them but they also want you to keep winning, it makes others around you think they have a chance too. Make a few mistakes here and there and you delay the moment when they tell you to get lost for the night. You will get noticed so your only option is to just avoid getting banned.
It's well known that when you're counting cards, there is always a swing to when the player has an advantage. If you're upping your bets when you have the advantage, and then lowering them when the house has the advantage, they'll usually stop you from playing at the blackjack tables and either ask you to leave, or tell you to play something else where they have the advantage, like slots.
I assume casinos use infinite shoes now so it's not even an issue?
The one actually doing the counting can play haphazardly and consistently lose money but they will covertly signal the partner who comes in with big bets when the situation is advantageous. The big better plays until the count favors the house again and then walks away. The counter keeps at it until the odds are again against the house and then they'll signal the next big better to come in and so on and so on until they win their set amount and move on to the next casino.
It's not illegal. It's not unethical. It's merely unprofitable for the casino and they'll ban you if they figure out that you're doing it.
It will, if you're a world famous gambler:
Isn't card counting mitigated with modern shufflers that produce an entirely fresh deck at the start of each play?
In this case it's debatable to what extent they're deceiving anyone, but more importantly all they're doing is pressing the slot button at the optimal time, which is kind of the point of the game. Now most people wouldn't consider this 'fair', but for a legal argument that is a bit vague, even if it might be enough to say, disqualify someone from a tournament.
Under Nevada gaming law it's not vague - the law might be invalid, but varying slot timing is explicitly banned.
Pulling the lever at a time you know to be right still sounds like using it for its normal operational purpose to me. Slot machines are designed to have their levers pulled, even when they will pay out as a consequence.
If they don't want a time-able system they should remove the feature that lets you stop the wheels. Of course they never will because selective enforcement is profitable so we should remove their legal protection and make them treat everyone equally.
But I'm not sure where the line is either... would writing down results from a roulette wheel in a notebook be cheating? If not, why is recording the results of a slot machine?
If you've been to Vegas, casinos tacitly encourage this by showing the last 100 spins of the roulette wheel and displaying "statistics" about the numbers that have or haven't frequently come up. Of course, this is all garbage because at 100 spins that's nowhere near enough to formulate any kind of statistical theory.
"Roulette - Biased Wheels and Wheelhead Speed - Casino News Daily"
I read the cached version, its an advisory for casinos about how to look out for biased wheels. I'll look again tonight when I get home.
http://www.gambling-stories.com/2014/03/joseph-jaggers-roule...
Hilariously, in some casinos, they actually hand out notebooks and pens for that purpose.
I get that it's "cheating", but I really don't care. Not at all. When predators get preyed upon it's funny. I only wish they were taken for more.
For all this "play responsibly" talk, we know that they survive on those who don't, and the last thing they want is for the addicted to wise up. So I have as much sympathy for them as for street-corner drug dealers and I'm sorry our rules protect them.