casino stupidity

If you did not know, the Missouri casinos cannot bar a skilled blackjack player from playing. I was around when the state put a vote to allow casinos and blackjack in the early 1990s. One of the stipulations the casinos made to convince the public was that blackjack was a game of skill. Of course they can apply countermeasures- but these need to be applied to the whole table.

Ameristar STL. I played the 6 deck hoping I could fly under the radar. I tried the 6 deck, I moved to the high limit dd knowing countermeasures would come on the next shuffle. The table was filled with 3 other good patrons. Dealer instantly went from 75% pen to "12 cards (11% pen). The patrons didn't like the looks of this change and cashed out and fled faster than Ryan Lochte out of Brazil. I have seen it happen before.

Does this make good business sense? If I were shareholder, I would say no. The regular players would probably not notice if they reduced pen to 40, 50,or 60% or if the table limit was lowered. The other players probably would not notice. But players can sense something is up and don't like it when they suddenly switch to one round and shuffle. So why mess with one player that might visit 2 or 3 times a year for a few hours and risk sending some of your good customers out the door and maybe to one of the competitors?

Imbeciles for casino managers. Who'd have ever dreamed such a thing?!

Don

a few repeat visits to the OP's casino to see if the admittedly excessive countermeasures have resulted in a reduction in business for that casino. Just my opinion not meant to insult anybody. I am told by my Poker/BJ player friends that double deck games are usually "counter traps".

By the way, I know a FEW casino poker room managers who are very knowledgable, and do not seem to be stupid.

Casino stupidity in this case is the reflex action (note that spinal reflexes require no brain function) to take countermeasures against the card counter, rather than considering the negative effect on their bottom line. Their action causes the casino to lose considerably more income that would be generated from the squares at the table than their loss to the AP.

To paraphrase an old joke:

background - Remember the experiment in jr high school biology where you pith a frog? That's where you sever the spinal cord from the brain to see what reflexes still work, in the absence of brain function.

How do you hire a casino table games or shift manager from a group of applicants? Pith them and the ones that can still crawl get the job.

jpb,

I play mostly in St Louis (or at least I used to) and make trips to KC a few times a year. The counter-measures come so fast in STL that I really don't bother playing much anymore in that region. I've also had isome ssues in KC too, so there's a few stores I stay out of now.

I know you're a KC local; I've read some of your older posts on the GC pages as well as your "fair well" post. I wasn't aware that you still play, hence your last post on GC. If you ever want to exchange notes, feel free to email me. Take care!

Ryemo

Blackjackplayer28@gmail.com

After similar countermeasure against me, flmn welcomed other players to recently opened hi limit dd game, of which I chose to leave asap instead of following them 2 new table. Since 4 critters were alerted to my presence, I should have had some fun and joined them.
Obviously,after 8 months....not worth returning.

and chase away their good customers in the process. if they chase away enough, maybe they will decide such extreme measures are not cost effective.
I have been visiting last 5 years- countermeasures always come but there have been times when I have been undetected for up to an hour or two.

Sounds like just the reverse for me. being native to KC, in KC, the countermeasures are usually taken before I can even play one hand. Being a visitor to STL, I have been able to play short (sometimes profitable) short sessions before the countermeasures come. Ameristar is the worst. Lumiere and Hollywood, not as quick.