CSM regulations

I know most of you hate CSMs like the plague but whenever generous rules make it worthwhile, I don't mind facing these machines.
However I'm still troubled by the apparent absence of binding prescriptions for their use. Most dealers leave about 1 deck in the discards before they refeed. This makes sense since that's about the amount of cards the machine can digest without problems.
Some refeed the machine after every round which seems legitimate but where it gets awesome is when they start refeeding during a round in progress. Lately a dealer even dared refeeding an even-money-Blackjack which in a no-hole-card game gives him more chances to get one himself but when I looked at him startled, he immediately apologized.Of course no card should be allowed to appear twice in the same round.
Another thing that is quite frequent is a situation where so many cards are left in the discard pile that they cannot be recycled all at once.The result is that the bottom cards will stay out of play for quite a while. This is very annoying when these bottom cards are rich in tens and aces.If the dealers knew what they were doing, it would clearly be preferential shuffling.
When such irregularities happen I never know how to react since any intervention might be counterproductive but it would be good to know the exact prescriptions referring to the use of these machine if such do exist.Can somebody help me?

Francis Salmon

I'm very pleased to get an answer from one of the best experts in this field.We're pretty much in agreement but I d'like to come back to a point that's still bothering me.
You say it's common practice in the US to refeed the machine after the initial cards for the new round have been dealt. Now, I remember vaguely having seen on the site of a Gaming Commission (may be it was even Nevada) that no new cards may be inserted as soon as the deal has started on the grounds that the chances would be altered. This is very plausible when you think of an NHC-game where supposedly all the players are dealt stiffs and the dealer has the ten up. Now the dealer brings in the discards which consist mainly of high cards. Not only have the players a higher risk of busting but the dealer has also a better chance to get a good total. In Europe this is done only by dealers who think their "raison d'�tre" is to fleece the customers.Not by those who want to maximise the tips.I wonder whether this procedure would be accepted by our gaming commission.

Francis Salmon

maybe it's about advanced shuffle tracking kinda like the Mirage machines were back when (?) think about it :)

Is ther ever a time an AP should play CSMs? If so, when? I can't fathom a set of rules that could favor a player agains them. It would have to be a ppositive off the top game wouldn't it?

Hello Francis Salmon:

I will not ask you to divulge the location of your "three gold mines" knowing full well that if you did so they would prpbably be shut down before I could even get there anyway. As well as having an advantage off of the top, do you also increase your wagers if the previous hand, or the number of cards that have a small chance of appearing in the next hand, indicates that you should do so?

Steve Adams