Question of the Day - 30 June 2024

The policy of the dealer and player's hands never touching dates back to the 1950s and it’s still going on today. It was implemented to prevent any number of illegal moves that a dealer, in collusion with a player, could make by shaking or even touching hands.

For example, dealer and player, with enough practice, could shake hands and pass cash, chips, drugs, etc. faster than you can blink your eye. And that's not an exaggeration. Sleight-of-hand artists can do these things in such a way that you could be looking right at them and not see it.

Another scam: The dealer "palm rolls" the cash, then pretends to drop it into the drop box with the paddle, but actually slips it up a sleeve or in a pocket or somewhere convenient for spiriting it out of the casino when he leaves. With the cash laid out on the table, it's very hard to fool surveillance by that move.

These days, since dealers at almost all the joints have to pool all the tips given to them individually with all the other dealers' tips, a  handshake "pass-on" could be a method of toking a dealer without anyone else being the wiser.

This method still goes on, but in a different manner. The player takes a regular screw-apart pen and curls up a $10, $20, $50, or $100 bill and places it inside the pen. When he signs for a marker, he declines to use the casino's pen and removes one from his shirt pocket, signs the marker, and after the floorman or pit boss leaves with the signed marker, the player looks the pen over, winks, and tosses the pen to the dealer.

Since most casinos have procedures in place that forbid contraband on the table, the dealer shows the pen to the eye (camera), turns up both sides of his hands, and places the pen in his pocket. This move is also made, occasionally, using a book of matches. However, this move "leaks" (it can be seen fairly easily) too much.

A crap player might hand off a pair of gaffed cubes (misspotted or weighted dice that won't roll a crap number or will roll 7 or 11).

The cash hand-off (handshake) was also a very popular move on crap tables, which is why the boxman uses the clear paddle (the clear plastic piece that sticks inside the drop box to make sure the money goes all the way into the box) to slide the cash over the drop box inlet and push it down with the use of the paddle.

You saw this policy in action with the newbie's buy-in. You can also see it if you try to get a dealer to shake your hand when you sit down, play, or leave his table. The dealer will decline, usually politely, and tell you that it's against the rules of every casino for a dealer to shake hands with a player. He might offer you the "fist bump," but that’s it.