Player Banking Blackjack

In California card rooms you are allowed to play as the dealer and put your own money up against other players bets giving you the house's edge. It is called player banking and it is the only reason card rooms can exists in California. It is confusing how the rules work so I don't want to try and explain it to anyone who is unfamiliar with the rules. So basically if you have the bank roll you can give yourself the house's edge, but I have never seen a player try and profit from this. You also can pick when you want to play as player and when you want to play as dealer. Most rooms pay 6:5 on black jack and use 8 decks and will deal out 6 decks. So normally not a good spot for card counters. But I was wondering if anyone knows how the far the edge can tip towards the dealer depending on how negative the deck goes and if it is a good idea to wait for the deck to go negative and player bank. Is this a profitable system?? Anyone know the odds??

My question is, what's the catch? This place isn't paying a huge electric bill, plenty of staff, and property payments/rent just to give their house edge to any guy that raises their hand. I would do this all day if I could, given the violations of basic strategy you see 20% of the time.

They must charge a commission or something. If not, can you PM me the info on where this is taking place.

Uh, these banker guys are part of an "association," for lack of a better description....you have to know someone. this isn't "my turn to bank..."

The Oaks Club card room in the San Francisco area says it collects a "rental fee" that can be either a one-time payment or a per-hand drop. Also, its rules say that the dealer position rotates around the table, changing two hands, and you have to have bet as the player in the previous hand in order to be eligible to be the dealer.

Quote: ThatDonGuy

The Oaks Club card room in the San Francisco area says it collects a "rental fee" that can be either a one-time payment or a per-hand drop. Also, its rules say that the dealer position rotates around the table, changing two hands, and you have to have bet as the player in the previous hand in order to be eligible to be the dealer.

That's good to hear. The previously discussed "assigned banker convention," when in use, if rife with various issues. Good riddance.

There is commission typically 2-10 dollar per hand that the banker must pay depending how much money is on the table. Every casino in California that is not on an Indian reservation has to offer player banking. Companies like pt gaming are making tons of money acting as banker on hands where players chose not to (basically every hand). The obvious difference between me wanting to try and profit from this and them is they can cover all bets all the time and can afford to like 100,000 a day if action doesn't swing there way.

California laws allow poker (and apparently other games of chances that are players vs players) and California casinos standardly collect a time charge ($/unit time) rather than offering games with a house advantage. So this BJ game, like California Pai Gow Poker, apparently offers players the opportunity to "bank" - i.e., to play as teh dealer, subject to dealer rules.

In answer to OP's question, yes, one could count cards to find the optimal times to bank - if you don't want to (or are not allowed to) bank all of the time.

It was years ago that I went to a Californian casino and if I recall they charged $1 per 100 for players and I'm guessing the same rate for your net profit as banker.