Living in Vegas and working at a slot machine company, this is old news to me. But a lot of you may be coming this way on vacation or for a convention and might find it interesting.

Tech’s Big Gamble
Behind the scenes there are also now some of the world’s most powerful digital surveillance, intelligence and data analysis technologies working hard to nudge that house edge ever higher over the tiny minority of cheats among the millions of honest players who walk through the casino doors each week.

“There are systems you can use which will mathematically calculate whether somebody is a good player or a cheat.”

The Digital Pit Boss
…aggregate numbers are staggeringly high: a typical blackjack table in Reno, NV, can see more than $6 million wagered monthly.

A back-end system continually evaluates and reevaluates their skill, hand by hand, hit by hit. (The theoretical best player, who plays strategically perfect blackjack, will have a mathematical disadvantage of .45 percent; each mistake he or she makes drives that number upward.)

On a different note, a number of casinos were damaged or destoyed in the Gulf Coast by the hurricane. Difficult times for many who attended the gaming industry trade show, G2E, here in Vegas this week.

G2E Eases Some Fears
The toll from the hurricane’s 145-mph winds and 30-foot storm surge devastated the economies of the Mississippi Gulf Coast communities of Bay St. Louis, Biloxi and Gulfport, closing all 12 casinos, displacing more than 17,000 casino workers and depriving the state of roughly $500,000 a day in tax revenue.

I went to G2E this week and one of the oddest things I saw was — aside from the plastic surgery pseudo youthfulized, artifically tan faces of two members of Kiss having their pictures taken in one booth with a conveyor belt of people — was a completely computerized blackjack table. No cards. Touch screens imbedded in the felt in front of each player showing your cards. Large plasma screen behind the semicircle with a curvey, cgi dealer. Your bets and wins are recorded on a credit card-like player’s card. No dealer to chat with. Or to cheat the house. Or tip. Or be paid. There were also similar roulette wheels except without the dealer. Place your bet and the wheel spins.

Progress!