In my 12 or so trips to Vegas and hours upon hours playing craps, and sometimes blackjack, I’ve seen dealers make errors on payouts. Obviously, this is part of the business, as mistakes happen. When a mistake is in the house's favor, not surprisingly, the players point it out and attempt to have it fixed. The same cannot always be said for times when it’s in the players' favor, I would presume (even though I point it out when I notice it, because I feel it would be luck and karma problems at the tables for me if I didn't). Since I imagine not all players are as proper about that as I am, my question is, what if anything do casinos do to account for that? Is there a built-in assumption that some wins will be paid out improperly and/or overpaid? Or do they assume it washes out, since errors in the house's favor might not always be caught, especially if it's a busy/hot table.
[Editor’s Note: The following response is written by Andrew Uyal, a long-time dealer in Mesquite and Las Vegas and now a floor supervisor for Caesars Entertainment, and a former advantage player.]
First of all, I'm sure the casino appreciates your honesty. Hopefully, it pays off for you in the long run.
Dealer mistakes, though common, always seem to surprise and even upset a large percentage of players. The common reaction is, "You should pay us all for that." Unfortunately, that's not a realistic scenario in most cases. What is realistic, though, is that being a dealer is just like having any other job. Very few people get through every work day with no mistakes of any kind. They have their Mondays and Fridays and off days and hangovers too.
That said, the casino, like any employer, expects mistakes to be caught and corrected by floor supervisors or surveillance. Obviously, not all mistakes are caught. In fact, a high number of them go unnoticed, in both directions. The dealer may be tired, having a bad day, or just not be properly trained. The supervisor may be comfortable in his section and simply assume the competency of the dealers. And surveillance has a million different things they’re watching for, over the whole casino, not just the tables. Mistakes are a reality that can affect the bottom line of a pit more than most people realize.
So do the casinos account for that, with lowering the amount or the frequency of the payouts? No. They don't assume that it washes out either. The games are designed and implemented to be dealt correctly with no mistakes. Mistakes are meant to be caught and corrected. When they’re not, it's referred to as the cost of doing business.
I will tell you that every game has an expected hold percentage, the amount the casino should win. These numbers are monitored closely. If a certain game holds less than it should, the managers will find out why. And the first thing they'll look at is if it's being dealt correctly. Then they'll look for things like advantage play. Often times, it's a procedural issue, such as a group of dealers not understanding the correct way to deal the game, paying when they shouldn't, or more than they should, etc.
Because mistakes are such a prevalent issue, it makes some games designed to have a high house advantage not so high after all. For example, some blackjack spin-offs offer exciting extra rules to entice players to play, though one rule pays for the all the others: If the dealer busts on 22, all bets left standing push, instead of win. If dealers forget to push the bets when they get 22 and pay everyone, there goes the whole advantage. And yes, that happens a lot. Blackjack dealers are creatures of habit, like many of us. And when you’ve been paying everyone on 22 throughout your dealing career, then are suddenly asked not to, it's a tough habit to break. So games like Free Bet Blackjack and Push 22, and others with unusual rules, can actually be a liability to have on the floor, instead of a big winner.
A popular form of advantage play these days is seeking out weak or tired dealers, on any game type, and taking advantage of their improper training, or fatigue, or low confidence in what they're doing. There's money to be made there, if it's done subtly. If not, though, you'll be flagged as a shot taker.
In my own experience during my time as an advantage player, when a dealer made a mistake in my favor, I let it sit for several seconds, giving him or her a chance to catch and correct it. If he didn't, I accepted the monetary gains. Card-counting is the business of making money, after all. Of course, if I was ever asked to return the money, I would immediately, without question. The interesting thing is, that never happened. Not once in my years of counting was I ever asked to return a dealer mistake.
I recall one situation in Seattle where I insured a $75 bet for $50, expecting the dealer to make change. Before I knew it, the dealer flipped over his blackjack, paid me 2:1 on my $50 insurance, and left my original bet in the circle! I left it there longer than usual, almost unable to process what he'd done. Then he got real snippy with me about taking my money back, so we could keep going, because he had to deal a certain number of hands per hour. So I did exactly that. I experienced a large number of situations like that. Sometimes, for a session, I'd come out ahead only by the amount of dealer mistakes made in my favor.
As you can see, mistakes in the pit are common occurrences. And as I said, there is not a built in make up for such mistakes. Sometimes, the mistakes completely wipe out the advantage the game has over you. When it happens to you, you'll have to decide how to handle it. One thought is, the casino doesn't mind taking advantage of you, so seize the opportunity to do the same. Another thought, like yours, is to be honest and keep karma in mind.
I’d lay odds on one thing, though: After reading this answer, you'll all pay much closer attention the next time you're at a table!
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Kevin Rough
Jun-08-2017
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