Details on UNshuffled Mini-Bacc

From Stiffs and Georges: Woe at the shore.

Taj Mahal got taken for 400,000.00 when dealers neglected to turn on the auto shuffler. Then Gaming Enforcement took them for almost a hundred grand beyond that. "The initial goof took place in the early afternoon, last Dec. 10, and nobody noticed anything amiss. Even after at least 25 minutes’ review of the “eye in the sky” footage, nobody was able to spot the anomaly."
Please note: wasn't some all night jammed up session of drunks or anything, though it was a Saturday.
Nine employees, including three dealers and a pit boss, were sacked but the vice president of casino operations kept his job.

Bunch of lucky shot takers must have been sitting there feeling lucky until the shoe finally ran out of cards.

how long did it take for the players to figure out it wasn't turned on, I wonder?

I don't know but it the casino got soaked for 400,000 ... somebody was quick on the uptake. Or at least a darn site quicker than the dealers and floor person.

My guess would be that this was a scam. Most baccarat players would not notice anything was amiss. Whether this sounds plausible or difficult to believe depends how much time you've spent at the tables with regular baccarat players.

Here is the complete story (kind of):

A Casino Nightmare: Could This Happen to You?, by Bill Zender

Quote: FleaStiff

From Stiffs and Georges: Woe at the shore.

Taj Mahal got taken for 400,000.00 when dealers neglected to turn on the auto shuffler. Then Gaming Enforcement took them for almost a hundred grand beyond that. "The initial goof took place in the early afternoon, last Dec. 10, and nobody noticed anything amiss. Even after at least 25 minutes’ review of the “eye in the sky” footage, nobody was able to spot the anomaly."
Please note: wasn't some all night jammed up session of drunks or anything, though it was a Saturday.
Nine employees, including three dealers and a pit boss, were sacked but the vice president of casino operations kept his job.

Bunch of lucky shot takers must have been sitting there feeling lucky until the shoe finally ran out of cards.

I read this in the NY Post or the NY Daily news recently.

Quote: GBV

Most baccarat players would not notice anything was amiss. Whether this sounds plausible or difficult to believe depends how much time you've spent at the tables with regular baccarat players.

It was mini-Bacc, so all the cards would have been facing the players. I think it would have been apparent to them (the writer even mentions dealing Baccarat hands from a new deck to his schoolteacher wife, who noticed right away). What surprises me is that it wasn't more obvious to the dealer. The cards would have been facing her, too. But she gets to the end of the clubs (presumably not out of the first deck in the shoe, either), then asks the floor whether it seems odd that the hands all seem to be coming out suited.

And of course Baccarat players are watching for patterns, anyway, although the article said that these players weren't even bothering with their scorecards by the time the staff noticed something was awry (probably a mistake on the players' part).

What got me about the article was this:

Quote: Catwalk 2.0

The last hand I dealt was a zero-zero tie hand with almost all the cards clubs

I can't figure out a way that could happen with the cards coming out of the shoe in sequence. If it was almost all clubs, there should have been an ace in there that would have kept the total from being zero-zero, since each hand would have had three cards. That couldn't actually happen, anyway, because to get six cards ending in an ace, you would have to start out with B:9/0 P:0/0, and the Banker having a natural nine would force them both to stand before a third card could be dealt to either of them. But if they started out, say with a ten, for B:0/0 P:0/0, then they each would have had to hit for B:0/0/1 P:0/0/2 and a Player win.

This sound like something that could have happened at Caesar's in Las Vegas.

Quote: heather

I can't figure out a way that could happen with the cards coming out of the shoe in sequence.

I picked up on this as well, and arrived at the same conclusion. The only thing I can think of is that they meant that the round started out as a 0-0 tie before hitting.

Write a memo!
Okay, in gambling its "make a phone call" instead of "write a memo"... but no one was willing to take bold and effective action.

Players clearly knew right off what had happened and switched to maximum betting and table uniform betting.

Dealer took a long time to notice and then only noticed "all clubs" rather than " all clubs dealt in sequence".

Dealer fault, Floor fault, ... should never have gone beyond that.

How did the "burn card" procedure go by undetected?
Was it omitted? Or was it the Deuce, Trey and Four, suited?

Surveillance might not have been watching... thats reasonable.

Its the same thing in data centers and nuclear power plants and just about everything else: shift changes are the danger points. Someone going on break, someone new coming in ... and there is a "failure to communicate" but one thing is certain: there was no communication failure on the part of the players.

One thing certain... if the dealer doing the burn card procedure had been alert it would have ended right then and there... not at 400,000 in losses and 100,000k in fines, but the dealer would have received zip extra in the pay packet which, when you come right down to it, is probably why it didn't happen that way.

It might depend on how they do the burn card procedure. Different places do it different ways. This was in AC; some places there show everyone the burned cards and some don't (but might if you ask). Las Vegas they'll never show the burned cards by default (but sometimes will if you ask). Anywhere else in the US they might or might not. Seems like they're less likely to show them at mini-Bacc (which this was), at least in my experience (but I haven't played mini-Bacc in years).

But, in this situation, the first card out of the shoe would have been an ace, so one card gets burned, which would have been a two, and then the burn would be finished. So, nothing to set off alarm bells there. But, yeah, it shouldn't have taken more than one hand after that (B:3/5 P:4/6, all suited, for a Banker win with natural eight) to realize that something was up.

Quote: JB

I picked up on this as well, and arrived at the same conclusion. The only thing I can think of is that they meant that the round started out as a 0-0 tie before hitting.

Thank you for confirming that for once I wasn't missing something totally obvious. The article did say that the players were betting Tie on that hand, but I guess that it didn't say that Tie had won. Still, with the players composed of people who hang around Baccarat rooms anyway (including two big players), you'd think that they'd know that there's no such thing as a natural zero and that both hands were gonna hit (and thus wouldn't have bet Tie).

Isn't a new deck set in the following order: A-K heart, A-K club, K-A diamond, K-A spade? So you could get 0-0 of "mostly clubs" if it went Tc Jc Qc Kc Kd Qd.

I just opened a new (Chinese copy of a) Bee deck and it went A-K, A-K, A-K, A-K. No idea with casino cards, though. Never occurred to me that all of the suits might not be in the same order!

Quote: jc2286

Isn't a new deck set in the following order: A-K heart, A-K club, K-A diamond, K-A spade? So you could get 0-0 of "mostly clubs" if it went Tc Jc Qc Kc Kd Qd.

Quote: heather

I just opened a new (Chinese copy of a) Bee deck and it went A-K, A-K, A-K, A-K. No idea with casino cards, though. Never occurred to me that all of the suits might not be in the same order!

I often times pick up spent and "marked" cards from my local casinos (marked in that they punch a hole or some such so you can't use them for cheating). They are always in the A-K A-K K-A K-A order. Now, in this case the casino has re-ordered the cards before giving them away to patrons, but I always assumed they re-ordered them into the factory order. These are Paulson brand cards. I don't recall being around when they bring out a new deck to see the actual factory order.

In New Mexico dealers have to sort the discarded decks into proper order which then get notched and sold in the gift shop, but in Nevada such sorting is done by prison labor and the decks are returned to the casino for gift-shop sale.

You are absolutely correct jc. I have worked in a casino 13+ years and this is the way all cards come regardless of manufacturer. Every box should be ordered this way which makes this hand possible. On a side note; $400,000 is a lot of money, however, a full table betting table max should have crushed the table for more than this. You should get 70+ hands per shoe. With even a modest $5k max a full table should have DESTROYED this game for much more. I think employees had to be involved. There is no way anyone who gets paid to watch these games could not notice the cards coming out like this. This story just strikes me as odd.

Everyone involved did get fired but I don't think there was any collusion, just dumb, tired and underpaid dealers who were not anywhere near as alert as the players were. The mob knew you had to watch your dealers but the mob knew also that the first line of defense is always the alert dealer. They took care of dealers just to make sure that no one was working when half dead from exhaustion because they knew what could happen.

I don't think there was collusion, either, but I can't help but wonder whether tokes might not have played a role in why the dealer took so long to comment to the floor on the situation.

I have a feeling that tokes at that table were notoriously scant as a matter of course. One thing that probably contributed to the dealer boredom and inattention is the sure and certain knowledge that he had not been earning any tokes and would not be earning any tokes from those guys.