We turned this one over to a surveillance expert we know, who gave the following (inimitable) explanation.
First off, it’s surveillance that practices the option of the "code" and not security. An easy way to remember the distinction between these two different entities is that security is the seen deterrent (wears a uniform, patrols the casino) whereas surveillance is the hidden threat (lucky if they wear anything while sitting in their dark rooms). [Ed: Ha!]
Also, it's not really a code, but rather a way of making the alcoholic- vs. non-alcoholic-drink distinction, which helps surveillance determine if a player is skilled, as opposed to a typical care-free gambler.
Surveillance learned a long time ago that if someone orders a Coke or a Pepsi, it comes with one of those fast-food restaurant straws (long and wider in circumference, so diners can pull more in to choke their food down). In casinos at the tables, they use the smaller glasses ("rock glasses") with the short straws that are used more to stir a drink than as a delivery tube.
Now, let's say the drink is a Long Island Ice Tea; this is served in a larger glass (tumbler), which gets wider as it goes up and is served with a medium-sized straw that barely makes it over the lip of the glass. This straw is used as an efficient delivery system and is stiff enough to be used as a stirring object.
If one were to order a soft drink, they would be it delivered in a tall glass with a straw that you could suck a golf ball through. From above, these subtle differences stick out like Brian Zembic at a nudist colony.
This is just one of the many secret tools surveillance has in its arsenal. Another is the cocktail napkin. Some joints use bright colorful ones for mixed drinks and beer and plain white ones for soft drinks and coffee. This is another boon for surveillance but that's not the reasoning behind it. Truth is, the bar managers use this system to help them maintain inventory, as it's much easier to count napkins than it is to count shots out of a bottle. This also helps them to identify the straight shooters and the over-pouring bartenders. Nonetheless, it's something that surveillance picked up on and has used for years as a means of separating the gamblers from the knowledgeable players: As we all know, gamblers, unlike advantage players, drink, smoke, tip, and don't wear seatbelts.
"Gambling With An Edge" is the weekly radio show presented by Huntington Press authors and gambling experts Bob Dancer and Richard Munchkin
