One topic that is bound to get any casino protection specialist hot under the collar is advantage play. We are talking about professional players who by the nature of them being professional, ie they do it for the money, actually tend to make money at their chosen profession. That may sound  tongue in cheek or even flippant, but we can usually ask one very disarming question. How many of these people really exist?

Several suggest that less than one percent of players who get referred to surveillance will show any true skill at their chosen game and a smaller number will be consistent in their play to form any long term threat to the house. Now this is not a defence of advantage players, but I am of the opinion that there are more significant risks to the bank with advantage teams, career cheats and organised cheating. For every solo professional advantage player there are hundreds of wannabe advantage players that trigger alarm bells and fill the casino coffers through lack of established skill. On the  flip side, the level of skill required to effect one or more cheating manoeuvres is much easier to attain and the payouts can be huge.

The differences between these four groups are the degree of organisation, the potential financial damage and the degrees of legality. In establishing that a standalone advantage player is in operation and you can do something about this, without falling foul of the law yourself is a grey area in any jurisdiction. Winning alone is not the single clue, if it was, then you are looking at a streak or a cheat. Even in a team, a cheat, in the UK using an electronic device, is not breaking the law until there is tampering with the casino’s assets or some form of collusion. In many parts of the US, using the same equipment to cheat, is a criminal act.  So where is the line drawn?

Casinos are service providers, nothing material is exchanged for the customers money apart from expectation, hospitality and goodwill. People expect to have a great time, receive hospitality irrespective of winning or losing and depart with a feeling of goodwill towards the venue. If you interfere with any of those three things you are shooting yourself in the foot.

At some point in the session, if you establish that playing patterns just don’t look right, then watch the individual. Teams need to communicate and the majority of cheats are using established tactics to get one over on you, both detectable. You will spend a long time trying to sieve the hobby gambler from the professional advantage player and, given the percentages involved, this could damage not only the reputation of your casino, but also your bottom line when you get it publicly wrong.

You are left with two areas of concern, any new methods of cheating and the seasoned professional advantage player. Both value anonymity but the latter leaves little evidence. Despite varying camouflage plays, the advantage player is very wary of attention and will take the hint when you develop an interest at table level. A cheat risks jail, so his play needs to be more guaranteed due to risk exposure.

The safest option is to pay personal attention to the suspected advantage player and maybe even hint that they should keep their bets at a fixed level for the rest of their session.