The Art of the Con

by R. Paul Wilson

  Rod differed from his contemporaries because he was genuinely fascinated by the art of sleight of hand. While many cheaters only care about a move that will make them money, Rod collected sleights he thought were clever and could perform most of them effortlessly. Hop also liked to adapt old methods or invent new ones for the games he was playing, and over time, he taught me that no gaming procedure was completely safe or impossible to simulate.

  Perhaps Rod’s most amazing skill was his ability to operate a Kepplinger-style holdout. A few months before his death, a handful of Rod’s friends gathered at Jason’s house to watch him demonstrate and expose his technique. With the machine Rod was able to move cards in and out of his sleeve without the slightest flash or tell, but this was not the device that Rod would go on to use in high-stakes poker games. Before being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Rod was hired to deal private games where even though he never needed to make a secret move, his partners could play every hand as if it came from a stacked deck.

  As technology advances, cheats are constantly looking for new ways to win. Marked cards have evolved from simple adjustments to standard back designs and special inks that can only be seen with a trained eye to systems that use special glasses or contact lenses to see markings that are invisible without them. The introduction of tiny hidden cameras has allowed grifters to push deeper into the infrared spectrum until their marks can be completely invisible without the right equipment. The simplest application of this is a hidden camera that transmits an IR image to one of the hustlers. When combined with a computer program, this method of marking cards can be devastating.

  Rod was hired to perform an honest shuffle and to position the cards, completely squared, in front of a tiny camera that would read the edge of the deck, which was secretly marked with IR ink. To the camera, the ink on the edge of the deck formed a barcode that revealed the exact location of every card in the deck, which the computer would then use to predict who would win that hand and what cards each player would receive. This information was simultaneously sent to one of the players who would use it to good advantage.* The system Rod used can now be bought online for a few thousand dollars, available to anyone who cares to take the risk. All the dealer needs to do is square the deck and place it in the exact position required to get a read, but there are other issues with this system that require skill to overcome. First, the cheaters need to be able to play well enough to use the information without making it obvious they have advanced knowledge. Knowing that a seven-two off-suit will prove to be the best hand is of little use if the other suckers start to wonder why anyone would play those cards. Second, the device can be unstable and often breaks down, which is why Rod was hired to deal; whenever the machine malfunctioned, Rod would start cheating the old-fashioned way. Lastly, Rod was able to assist the device and deliver better quality hands to his partners using false deals that were dictated by the computer.

  Even with this kind of system, it takes patience to get the marks’ money and many hustlers usually resort to switching decks to save time. A hustler once told me that he was brought in to fill a seat at a private game where the host was the only mark and everyone else at the table was there to cheat him. When the sucker went to the bathroom, one of the cheaters reached over and stole hundreds of dollars from the victim’s pile of chips.

  “What are you doing?” my friend asked.

  “Saving time!” the hustler replied.

  Just because something seems highly unlikely, even impossible, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done by someone with the time to practice or build a working solution. When it comes to cheating games of chance, some people will go to fantastic lengths to steal. Some methods require nothing more than a willingness to take the shot, regardless of risk or danger; other techniques take years of practice to perfect seemingly fantastic feats of skill that no one would suspect, let alone detect.

  It would be impossible to describe more than a tiny sample from the spectrum of cheating methods, but I hope to have illustrated enough of their ingenuity, perspicacity, and tenacity to prove that no game is safe when it can be played for money.

  Footnotes

  * A professional cheater and expert in sleight of hand.

  * That is, too much attention or suspicion from other players.

  * I’m deliberately being vague about how this information is captured or received, but if you stop to think how much technology is already at the table in the shape of smartphones, you might be able to piece together the system.

  ADVANTAGE PLAY

  Icould barely breathe. Panic was trying to take over as the sweat ran down my back to the electronic device secretly taped to my skin. Everyone at the table was looking at me expectantly, waiting for an answer. I waved my hand to signal “no more cards,” the dealer moved on, and the game continued while I surveyed the room. Everyone on my team was leaving, picking up their chips and cashing out. In a matter of minutes I would be alone in the casino with a hidden computer on my back and a keypad strapped to my leg.

  It was my first night working at the tables in a live game. After weeks of perfecting how to enter every card dealt into a computer using binary code, this was my audition for the team who hoped to profit from lax shuffling procedures that were endemic in the UK at that time. We were spread across several tables, recording cards from each round of play and then telling the computer whether or not the dealer employed a weak or a strong shuffle. When the shuffle was weak, we could predict the next round of play with incredible accuracy; but even when it was strong, the odds were still on our side.

  As the players would track each round of cards, occasionally rotating to take breaks or keep things moving, a “Big Player” would walk from table to table, seemingly at random but actually guided by his crew. When the odds were in our favor, the computer told me via a tiny earpiece and I would make a signal to bring the Big Player in. Once at the table, the Big Player’s earpiece would pick up the signal from my computer and start following its advice. A voice synthesizer would reveal where the aces were most likely to hit and the Big Player would bet more money on those spots, before moving to the next table, where another member of the team was tracking that game.

  It was a simple system that required a great deal of work and preparation to execute. No one, it seemed, would believe that five people might be working the tables with complex electronics under their pants. Nevertheless, we had strict rules on how to behave in the event that staff might become suspicious. The most important thing was to never try to make a run for it. Security would hit first and ask questions later. Running was as good as admitting guilt before any questions were even asked.

  Just as we had a system for beating the games, there was a strict method for making an exit in the event of heat from the house. First, there was the signal: an open hand running fingers through the hair from front to back. Once this was seen, players would begin taking their chips to the cage and cash out before leaving. We would then meet at the hotel suite rented by our Big Player, who also ran the crew.

  I had missed the signal and had no idea when or why it was given. Focused on the game, I had no idea how long we had been in danger and only noticed there was a problem when the Big Player caught my eye from across the room and glanced toward the last member of our team as he left the cashier. Once he had my attention, the Big Player walked to the door and shook hands with the manager as he left. Suddenly, I was alone.

  My shirt was soaking wet by the time I stepped off the stool and collected my chips. Each breath I took was a conscious effort to remain calm while the cashier counted out my money; as I walked to the door, my imagination was on fire, terrified that I’d feel a hand on my shoulder just as I was about to reach freedom. Nothing happened. I walked to the curb, hailed a taxi, and told the driver to take me to our hotel.

  As I entered the suite, the room fell silent. Everyone turned to stare at me as I walked in, fully expecting to be reprimanded for not spotting the signal. No one spoke.

&
nbsp; “What happened?” I asked.

  The Big Player stood up. “You don’t know?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t see anything.”

  “Nothing?”

  “I didn’t see a thing. Who gave the signal?”

  “You did.”

  There was an uncomfortable pause as everyone began to realize what had just happened. It turns out that, when under pressure, I had a nervous, unconscious habit of running my fingers through my hair, from front to back. The room erupted in laughter and I felt like a complete idiot. Within the week we were all back at the tables, with a brand new “get out” signal and a powerful, probably legal, advantage against the house.

  A talent for deception and an eye for opportunity are not limited to those of a purely crooked disposition. In the world of casino gaming, there is a fascinating middle ground that remains mostly on the right side of the law. Advantage players seek out weaknesses in game procedures, looking for opportunities to gain an edge against the house. Their methods can shift the balance of odds dramatically, but despite being technically legal, the casino industry spends millions of dollars to identify and prevent these strategies.

  Employing an advantage is a negative proposition for the house, so it’s understandable that they don’t take kindly to players who have an edge over them. Las Vegas was built on tiny percentages that keep the odds firmly in favor of the enormous casino resorts that created a thriving city in the middle of the Nevada desert. As Penn and Teller used to point out in their show, the entire city depends on bad math, and major casinos advertise 98 percent return on their slot machines as if this was a good thing.

  In all aspects of life, it is possible to find yourself taken advantage of, or to have an advantage hidden or denied to you. To a con artist, life is just a game where rules are for suckers. It’s all a matter of who’s the player and who’s being played.

  By far, the most well-known Blackjack system is card counting. Many people think this is an illegal strategy that somehow breaks the rules, but it is completely above board. Counting cards is about observing the outcome of previous rounds of play and using that information to determine the quality of cards that remain to be dealt. Since some cards are more beneficial to players than others, if we can track how many of those cards have been removed from the deck then we can easily gauge how many remain. The number of good cards compared to the size of the deck that is still to be played tells us how attractive the game is at that moment in terms of positive or negative expectation.

  Even though this is a simple concept, it can be difficult to understand because most people just don’t think this way. Most casual players approach a casino table to gamble until their stake is gone or fortune smiles upon them. Many do not even employ the optimum strategy for each hand, and those who do are sometimes berated or harassed by fellow gamblers who believe purely in luck. How you choose to play is up to you, but with any transaction, if you really want to win, luck alone rarely does it—and a deeper understanding of the game is essential.

  As a useful example of how to regard any game, let’s put ourselves in the role of a blackjack player and figure out the best way to invest our money at the table.

  First, we need to know the basic strategy for every hand we might be dealt. There is a mathematically proven way to play that we need to memorize long before we approach the table. The casino depends on players to either ignore this strategy or play it so poorly that it becomes irrelevant.

  Basic strategy in blackjack does not require any information other than the cards you’re dealt and the dealer’s “up card,” but it can improve your odds significantly. Despite this, many players simply don’t take the time, or do the work required to learn it. Perhaps this is because they’re just hoping to have a good time, and if they’re prepared to lose every penny then I have no problem with that. However, if that money is not disposable, then why on earth would someone ignore their best chances of winning?

  Returning to the blackjack table, let’s assume that we have memorized and mastered basic strategy (found in countless books and websites) so that we are always making the best decisions at the table. How else can we improve our chances?

  For each round, the cards are dealt face up and played, then placed aside into a small plastic tray to the dealer’s right. This continues until the dealer decides to shuffle all of the cards, which is usually determined by a plastic “cut card” inserted into the deck after the shuffle. Up until this point, we have been shown every card that was dealt, so if we were willing to do some more work, we could track these cards to determine what is left in the balance of the deck. Basic card counting simply monitors the overall quality of the deck and whether it contains more or less valuable, potentially profitable cards for the player. Knowing this can help us to adjust basic strategy and increase our bets when the quality of the deck is higher. Put simply, we know when the cards are in our favor and bet accordingly.

  This all requires a high level of concentration on the player’s part, but for some of us, this was always part of the attraction to this game. The very fact that we can mentally improve our chances of winning is fascinating, but for the casinos, it turns a profitable game into a losing one, especially when dealing with effective card counters. When players become better organized, develop more sophisticated systems, and play with deeper pockets, their slight mathematical edge could possibly dig a serious hole in the house margin. Fortunately, there are far fewer expert players out there than the casinos like to think. Most players who take a shot at card counting are ill prepared or poorly trained and have probably more than compensated over time for some of the losses made to professional teams. The majority of 21 players simply haven’t the dedication or determination necessary to employ this kind of system, but since most people are only playing the game intermittently, hopefully as entertainment, learning pages of odds just isn’t worthwhile. If a player is determined enough to turn their game into a profitable endeavor, they can and should go to any legal lengths available to them.

  Sometimes a line is crossed and a perfectly good strategy becomes a felony. While playing in the UK and Europe, I was part of a team that used concealed computers and keypads to record and process data from several tables so that our Big Player could seemingly walk from game to game and bet large sums with a huge advantage. At this time there were no laws against these devices, but over time, we learned that this alone offers no protection to players using them. In the UK particularly, the legal system usually takes the side of the casino and has jailed players who simply processed information available to anyone watching the game. By using electronics these teams enjoyed a huge advantage but created a tangible threat to the game that could be used against them in court. In Nevada, any device that can be shown to assist the player when making decisions is illegal and there’s a harsh penalty for anyone caught using one. To my mind, devices are too risky and no amount of money is worth spending time behind bars, but professional (and not-so-professional) teams continue to use technology in the hope of making a big score. For them, perhaps it’s worth the risk.

  The term advantage player typically refers to someone who avoids crossing that line and remains within the law, but casinos dedicate a great deal of energy to weeding these players out and barring them from the tables. It’s true that a well-organized group with a solid system can take a lot of money, but any money actually lost over time is dwarfed by the amount spent to defend against those few effective players, and this itself might be insignificant compared to the amount lost by slowing down games and limiting how much ordinary players can gamble every hour.

  Not all deception is criminal. Approaching any situation or transaction as a game or problem to be solved is similar to the mindset of a con artist, who is always searching for an angle or way to take an advantage. This perspective often reveals flaws or opportunities in social or business scenarios, which can be used or abused depending on one’s motives. An understanding of how to interpret the world in
this way can be a powerful defense and a useful skill in the right circumstances. Lines can be crossed in everyday life when someone sees a way to up their profits or ensure success at all costs. The loser might be you, and out here in the real world, it could be your house that’s on the line. Learning how to identify an off-balance or crooked proposition would certainly be valuable, but I believe it’s more productive to simply understand that these scenarios exist rather than having to know about every type of deception. Smart casinos will politely back a player off the game even when they can’t identify what he’s doing, usually telling him that he’s “too good.” There’s no reason you can’t do the same if you feel out of your depth or don’t have enough information to make an informed decision.

  Finding the Edge

  Some businesses deliberately design their procedures or interfaces to mislead or misdirect the consumer. Sharp practice is the art of staying on the right side of the law while offering a transaction or deal that places the customer into a situation that is either unfair, more costly, or deliberately manipulative of expectations. Payday loans, cellular contracts, investment deals, and business “opportunities” are well-known territory for clever wording, misleading figures, and concealed terms.