The better the gambler, the worse the man, wrote Publius Syrus, and all casino owners, from Nevada to Monte Carlo believe him. In fact, they believe him so well that they do not just put watchers and security officers near tables, they put up surveillance camera systems, too.
It is unheard of for casinos not to have surveillance camera systems. After all, fortunes, big or small, are lost and won in the space of seconds inside casinos. With so much money at stake, casino owners and managers therefore anticipate the worst sides of human nature to surface. There will always be people who will try to beat the odds by cheating the house; and what better way to catch these people than through surveillance camera systems? These watchers never sleep, never blink, and never get distracted by a scantily clad woman, for example, or a brawl that erupted in one of the tables.
Cheating the House
Winning is addictive, and money even more so. Not surprisingly, hordes of players try to cheat at the gaming tables. The trick range from palming of chips and switching of cards to rigging games with the use of electronic devices. In 1998, Dennis McAndrew and his associates pled...