Casino Technology: How They Improve Their Odds With Technology

Have you ever stopped to think that casino technology might be improving their odds? Avid punters keen to maximize their winnings at gambling always try to develop ingenious systems for beating the house at its own game. Anything from card counting at Black Jack to shoe computers and laser beams timing the calculations of a roulette ball spin, you can bet confidently that it has been tried. Likewise, casinos are doing their level-headed best to keep ahead of us all, and almost all the time they are successful.

All games are designed to favor them in the end, but even if you do manage to get “lucky,” they have some casino technology in place to help them stop you from taking too much of their loot. After all, casinos couldn’t keep operating if their patrons kept winning all the time. Casinos are well known for taking an interest in players who try to beat the house using a system of some sort, or anyone who wins perhaps a little too much for their own good. Consider some of these casino technology examples that they don’t want you to know about:

Casino Technology You May Not Know About

 

Biometric Face Recognition

Ever spared a thought for how many cameras are installed in a casino? They have every single angle covered, and one advantage of this is that they can scan every patron’s face as they enter, gamble and leave. If they spot someone of interest, their face gets scanned, loaded in to a database and using some fancy software, they’ll be able to tell straight away when you enter the casino. Expect security to promptly escort you off the premises.

License Plate Readers

And once they know your face, you can get bet they’ll know your wheels. Sophisticated license plate readers will detect your car the minute you enter the car park. Expect security to be at your car before you’ve had a chance to park (or if they’re really good, they’ll stop you at the gate).

Angel Eye

Designed to stop card-switching at tables, the Angel Eye system relies on barcodes placed on each card with invisible ink. As the cards are dealt, a sensor in the dealing shoe keeps track of the cards being dealt which are then tracked by a computer. When the dealer presses a button on the shoe, it determines whether the cards on the table are the same as those that were dealt. If they are not, security makes its presence known.

RFID Chips

Thinking of bringing in some counterfeit chips? Think again! Thanks to tiny RFID computer chips in their core, casino chips emit radio frequencies detected only by casino computers. If they don’t, the casino will know they’re counterfeit. Cue security.

Good Old Fashioned Security Staff

This isn’t a casino technology, but it reinforces all the points above, and you do know about them. When all else fails, hire a huge bunch of muscle-men who can turf out any unlike-ables on your whim, regardless if you have the technology to detect their treachery or not. Works every time!

There are more examples of casino technology discussed at Gizmodo Australia. All kidding aside, gambling in a casino can be fun when done responsibly. For me, it seems like too much hassle to figure out how to count cards or bring in devices to detect rhythms in roulette ball spins and whatever else. You’re either lucky or you’re not. It’s best to base the fun and thrills on that notion.

Via: [Gizmodo Australia] Image Credits: [Blackjack Life] [Strategies In Roulette]