Slow down…you’re moving too fast…

Nope, no Simon and Garfunkle today, but here’s a funny blackjack story I read about recently that got me thinking. What if you’re doing nothing wrong in a casino, not even counting, but somehow making it difficult for the staff to do their job. Can they still just adjust their rules and kick you out?

Here’s the story, you’re at a casino, playing blackjack (any rules, doesn’t matter) with a dealer you know and have sat with before. You keep going back to that dealer because he or she is efficient. You’ve been playing long enough that your own decisions are nearly instantaneous, so it’s a match made in casino heaven. You can play fast enough in heads up to get through almost a dozen hands every minute – playing a couple hands at once. You’re not counting, you’re not loud or causing a disturbance, you’re just doing your thing.

But the pit bosses don’t like it. Why? The surveillance is having trouble keeping up with your pace. They phone in and instruct the dealer to slow down, to keep the cards face up longer before scooping them, too, to help them out a little. I rarely laugh from a casino story but this one got me.

Not only because the casino was playing catch-up, but because they had to basically let a player know he was being watched, which isn’t something they prefer to do. That gives the player, even if he isn’t counting, fair warning to probably cash in and move on. If you’re under the eye in the sky, it’s not a welcome environment in which to play.

Here’s an idea for that player, offer your services to the casino to train them to pick up their pace, since they obviously need the help. It’ll be just like a retired hacker going to work for the government. Lol.