This is a serious question. I doubt this issue has ever been addressed by a court. But as I read the standard definition of cheating, preferential shuffling is clearly cheating and therefore illegal. Here is the standard definition:
"Cheat" means to alter the selection of criteria which determine the result of a gambling game or the amount or frequency of payment in a gambling game.
Shuffling early when the deck favors the player is to "alter the selection of criteria". Actually, shuffling early for any reason in a game with a cut card is cheating. Now, who has the balls to go to the Attorney General and swear out a complaint the next time they are shuffled up on? I'm tempted, but I've never been shuffled up on.
Though, for this and other reasons, I do carry a copy of the statute in my pocket everytime I enter a casino.
