This game took place in the Asian pit from around 8 PM until 10:30 PM. I was playing Pai Gow Poker in that same pit from about 9:00 PM until 10:40 PM. When I got there everybody was talking about the game that was going on at the mini-bac table just a few feet from where I was playing PGP. By that time there were 10 players taking up every seat and playing table max $5,000 on each hand.
There was a dealer and a supervisor watching over the mini-bac game. I think a 2nd supervisor may have been there as well but there was one supervisor who was responsible for the table and he was there the whole time. The shift manager was in the pit on the phone almost the entire time that I was there. Other suits were running around as well.
The supervisor watching our PGP table said she was happy she was not responsible for the mini-bac game and did not want to go anywhere near that table.
Someone said that they were using preshuffled decks in the mini-bac game and that would probably be the last time they ever did that again.
There were about 10 to 15 other players around the table who were not playing. But according to the article the players were making bets for others so I am guessing they were betting for some of the folks who were watching the game. I had seen the folks watching the game playing mini-bac at the 2nd table in the Asian pit earlier in the day. They were a group of high rollers according to one of the pit folks I spoke with earlier. I could see them playing earlier in the day and they indeed were playing large sums. I do not think the high rollers were sitting at the seats in this latter game but were probably getting some of the players to bet for them. I did hear of one person who supposedly bought in for about $300 and was now playing table max on every hand.
According to the article, "The mini-baccarat game started at 7:42 p.m. April 30 and continued until 10:18 p.m. As the game went on, the cards repeatedly came out in the same pattern, allowing the gamblers to win 41 consecutive hands, the suit states."
So my question is with all the eyes on the game, including (I am guessing ) the eye in the sky and (I am guessing) a computer to analyze the hands, how come the players were able to play so long without someone figuring out what was happening. If the cards were not shuffled as per the article, then they would have been coming out in order within suit and rank. If the players were able to figure it out in order to predict whether the bank or dealer would win the hand, then how come the casino personnel were not able to figure it out as well.
The game had been going on for about 1 hour when I sat down at the PGP table. By that time the players were already winning in the $100,000 to $250,000 range as I recall from the talk at the table. There were already several casino folks watching the game and the shift manager was on the alert and using the phone to speak to someone (probably the eye in the sky along with calling his management). So why did they let the game go on another 1.5 hours?
Why didn’t the casino just stop the game and shuffle the cards remaining in the shoe or bring in new cards and shuffle them?
But putting that aside, it seems to me there beef is with gemaco, the company that was supposed to preshuffle the decks in the shoe. The casino put the cards in play. They observed the game as it was played. I don’t see how they can win their claim it was an illegal game. It seems that the responsibility falls on the casino to provide a random game. It should be interesting to see how this turns out in the end.
Replies:
Posted by: Guest on July 19, 2012, 4:24 am
Posted by: Agame on July 19, 2012, 11:59 am
Posted by: Scan on July 19, 2012, 6:40 pm
Posted by: Scan on July 19, 2012, 6:42 pm
I am also wondering why they would use reshuffled cards. Does it take that long to shuffle?
