The Bear Growls: Gaming Control Board hysteria over silly iPhone device


Users of iPhones beware — state gaming agents are watching you.

More waste of time and taxpayer money by the shameful Nevada Gaming Control Board. The Board issued a memo to casinos about this silly device. The only people who are likely to use this device are beginners who will probably lose despite using the program, and probably have no idea that the program is illegal to use in a Nevada casino. The program does nothing that a competent card counter doesn’t already do in his head, perfectly legally. I guess the Board has no time for properly investigating patron complaints of wrongdoing by casinos, but has time and money to waste on this nonsense.

Bill Zender, a respected and intelligent casino consultant, commented:

“How soon will it be before a customer is detained by security because he or she was simply text messaging their friend from the general proximity of a blackjack table? Worse yet, what about the possibility that this person will be arrested for possession of a cheating device which is a felony?”

With Nevada’s economy reeling, it makes no sense to give casinos something else to be paranoid about. The paranoia this will fuel will result in many “good casino customers” (suckers) being hassled, and everyone with a cell phone to be looked upon as a possible criminal. This gives casinos another excuse to harass patrons, which will result in the typical cases of casino abuse. Lawsuits will of course follow, costing the casino industry far more money than letting a few wannabe card counters play. The Gaming Control Board again exposes itself as a laughingstock.

Are regulators over reacting to iPhone card counting program?

LVBear

2 Comments

  1. Most of what bureaucrats do is silly so this iPhone cheating program over-reaction is not too surprizing.

    Some people don’t know what programs are on their computers so they may not even know what programs are on their phones much less how to use them yet surely there will come a time when one of those well-paid, well-trained security guards thinks he has captured Public Enemy Number One or something.

    Anyone using such a device would indeed be likely to lose his entire bankroll. There are enough card counters able to count a six deck shoe without any artificial devices who still lose money to the casino so what is some dumb guy going to do when he is weilding a bulky iPhone? Its not a threat at all. Casino security spots the “toe-tappers” who have electronic solenoids concealed in their cowboy boots so do you really think the security people need help discovering someone using a bulky and ultra-slow iPhone?

    I can just see the adverse publicity from one incident of a casino employee over-reacting! When will the casinos learn to keep the goons caged until cooler heads determine that they are needed.

  2. For me, it looks like hidden advertising for casinos : they are actually the ones who are promoting this kind of useless news which was all over the newspapers, in english and in other languages (French for sure). The casino industry is so desesperate that they create this kind of viral news to make wanabe pro players want to come to their place… I’m telling more about this on my french blog (http://www.oweia.net/Quand-l-iPhone-compte-les-cartes.html)

    cheers

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