p40-42 john connolly 23/3/09 11:08 Page 40
BLACKJACK SECURITY
Give Blackjack a
chance
John Connolly explains why Blackjack needs another chance in
casinos despite fears over card counters.
I
n 1994, I was working as Gaming Manager at one chip. In 1994 I had heard of ace location, or ace
of the most well known casinos in Central sequencing, but I had never witnessed anyone doing
Europe. I had just come on duty for the night it before.
shift at around 8:30. A player and his girlfriend After that shoe, he decided that it was time to eat
had arrived during the afternoon and presented so he coloured up his chips and left the gaming floor
themselves to the General Manager. The player, a to go for dinner in one of the restaurants in the
young American, had singled out our casino because hotel. I took this opportunity to go into the office and
it was one of the few in the city with a hotel attached study the mug shot books, which in those days we
to it. He told the G.M. that he had $30,000 dollars kept to help recognize any gaming cheats or
and he wanted to play blackjack and would we comp. undesirables. We had three large books full with
his room stay. He gave the G.M. his business card, thumbnail pictures, mostly in black and white, so this
which read “ Strategic Trading Company” and an was a time consuming task when you don’t know
address in Vancouver, Canada. He was told he could whom you are looking for (not as easy as searching
play and that we would rate his play and if warranted through a computerized database). Three quarters of
we would compliment his stay, so off they went to the way through the second book there he was, a
book their room in the hotel. Some time later that small black and white photograph, which was about
afternoon he returned to play at the $25 minimum twelve years old at the time: John Chang, a member of
blackjack table, the G.M. had become suspicious of the M.I.T. card-counting team, it said. When he
him so he telephoned the building in Canada, which returned from dinner I stopped him at the entrance
housed the company mentioned on his business card, to the casino and I told him that he couldn’t play any
they had never heard of such a company. more. He asked me why and I told him to just think of
It’s customary in Europe that all visitors to a how he had presented himself to us, end of argument.
casino must register to enter with an ID (a So he put down his chips on the reception desk and
requirement of law) and in this case the player had
entered on a Burmese passport, which had been
…in this case the player had
issued in Vancouver, Canada. The name in the
passport was Sayadaw Mahasi, what we didn’t know at entered on a Burmese
the time was that this name belonged to a famous
passport, which had been
Buddhist monk, who was deceased. When I took over
the responsibility of the gaming floor in the evening,
issued in Vancouver, Canada.
he was already ahead of us by $5,000 and the order
The name in the passport
had gone out to give him a short deck, meaning that
the dealer had to place the cutting card in the
was Sayadaw Mahasi
middle of the pack and limit the possibilities of him
counting down the whole shoe. By now it was obvious said what do I do with these, $10,000 worth, I
that we were dealing with a card counter – but instructed security to take them to the cash desk and
whom, and how good was he? we would bring him the money. He said “I have got
I began to watch his betting pattern and it was some more in my room” and off he went to get them,
noticeable that he was incrementally raising the size it was only another $75, probably pin money. When
of his bets according to the count – when the he got back his cash was waiting for him and that was
remainder of the deck was rich in tens and aces or the last we saw of him. He had won approximately
when it was known that the shoe was hot. Also, $6,500; not bad for a few hours work.
during the shuffle he was concentrating on the cards His girlfriend, J.L.R., who at the time of writing is
and not looking around the room or chatting to the still mainly anonymous, had been playing at one of
dealer, which is more usual. Then on the first bet of the competition casinos nearby. She was going by the
the first hand of the new shoe he had placed a $500 name of Manuela Saenz, a 19th century South
40 APRIL 2009
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