Cheating at Blackjack: How We Cheated at Blackjack with Computer Coolers in the 1980s. Casinos lose.

Discover one of the most fascinating and little-known casino cheating methods ever used against blackjack. In this episode, The Kaiser and Dustin Marks reveal how professional teams used computer coolers, cold decks, false shuffles, and sophisticated planning to beat casinos during the 1980s. Learn how pre-arranged decks evolved into computer-assisted operations, why dealers, recorders, and big players all had specific roles, and how Nevada's device laws changed casino security forever. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

In 1986, we destroyed the game of Blackjack by using a computer. Welcome to Cheating of Blackjack. I'm the Kaiser, and here's our host, Dustin Marks.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Welcome everybody. We are going to talk about both coolers and computer coolers today.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Wow, that sounds ominous.

unknown 0:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

For the casinos, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Very lucrative for us. So let's yeah, let's get down into detail. First of all, what is a cooler that we're doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Coolers have been around forever. They can be used in blackjack, poker, quite a lot in private games. Oh, pri yeah. I mean, way easier in private games.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Just thought of this. Have you ever seen the movie The Sting, the game on the train, uh, when he switched out the cards, that would be a cooler.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

But Jay OC. Jay OC who was a big-time magician back then.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Uh, that's a good information. It's cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

A cooler is a pre-arranged deck of cards, so the player, BP, big player, will win every hand.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

That's nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

They started out as just a single deck back in the 40s and 50s. I think shoes came around in the 60s.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Might be. I don't remember. I can't go that far back.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

In let's talk about casino blackjack. Sure. You get a deck of cards from the casino, various ways of doing that. You arrange them so the player's gonna win every hand. Imagine playing a game, but you win every hand.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

You never lose. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Betting a lot of money. It adds up very quickly.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

So a guy like me, a mechanic, would take that cooler, also known as a cold deck. And the reason it was termed cold deck is because the cooler had not been handled much, and they were literally a little cooler.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

They were actually cooler because they were not in play, you know, getting at the heat from the friction or the handling, the shuffling. It's very interesting the little detail that people can actually tell.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

So I would take this in, walk up to the blackjack table, and switch these cards with the dealer's cards. If we go back to the 50s, the dealers were not told to watch the deck or put a finger on the deck. So at the right time, you'd have an attractive woman cut into the dealer. Dealer's gonna look, let's say she's over here, and the mechanic does the switch. Dealer comes back, thinks everything's on the square, and now deals. Now I would have the dealer's cards, and there's two ways to get rid of them. One, I could walk out of a casino, or I could have a woman right at my side with her purse open, I drop the cards into a purse and she takes off. Either way, the original deck is gone.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Right. All that's left is the stacks deck used by criminals.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

So regardless of the dealer's down whether or not, they are gonna deal to the player, normally called a BP, big player. And that big player is gonna win every hand. They're not gonna make it look good, push once. They want to get every dollar they can.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Use every available card to make money.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

The player will get a lot of made hands. They don't want to take a lot of hit cards. Every card is valuable. So a lot of double downs, blackjacks, and just some winning hands.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Yeah, you don't want to chew up cards for no reason. You want to get the max number of cards out in a single round. So that's why you have the bigger hands, the double downs, the chew up very few cards. So you get more hands out in that deal. Smart.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

If it's heads up, how many rounds can they get in a single deck?

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Well, normally I would take a guess. I haven't dealt much single deck, nor did I pay attention to how many rounds I got. I would say with just one player and a single deck, you can get five, possibly six, maybe a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

And if a dealer's down with it, he's gonna deal as deep as he can feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Yeah, since the whole deck is set up, they can go as deep as they can possibly go and get away with it.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

And I don't remember when, probably in the 50s at least, they were dealing all the way down to the bottom card.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

They went all the way through. And I know at times when I was dealing a single deck back in the old days, that there were times where I went a little too far. I've had to shuffle mid-hand to finish out the round, which is a huge no-no, but I had to do it a couple times. Did you get any heat for that? Not really. This uh it happens. That's I think hey, I I totally lost track. I mean, it was all on the square. I just I'm too busy. Don't ever say that word. Square. But yeah, I went all the way down, ran out of cards, and had to shuffle to finish the round. And it's not a good thing. People don't like that. Really, they don't.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

No, it's like going up to pick your kid up from school and forget to pick them up. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

It's a bad thing. And I have done it a few times. So back then they would drive it down as far as they could go. Nowadays they have pretty much a set number of rounds. If you have a full table, two rounds shuffle. I used to squeeze out three, you know, but you wouldn't go any more than three because you want to have cards left. At least this many cards. Yeah, you want to have enough. So, but back then they didn't have a cut card to deal with, and they dealt as far down as they could go because every hand they're making money.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Of course, the deal is down with it.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

So it's just gonna keep going. Now, the only negative with a single deck cooler is limited revenue possibilities. Sounds like our corporation, don't it?

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Yeah, they don't have a whole lot of options, they only get about four or five hands, and that's it.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

So enter the six deck cooler. Now, these are still in the card box, but we're gonna show you with one deck that's open here. Nobody can make this switch invisible. And here's the bad thing. Now imagine these are all unboxed cards. I'm gonna come up and switch it. Obviously, the dealer's down with it, and I do this. That's bad. When that happens, you turn, and you better know where the exit is.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Yeah, having a mess on the table while the dealer still has his cards in his hand is uh not a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Not only do you have to switch the cards, then you gotta get out of the casino with the cards.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

With the cards. That's when you dump them off to somebody else. Yeah, it's it's a bad thing. And the other thing is, is you know, back in the day when they had surveillance, it wasn't camera systems like we had now. Back in the 60s, it was just guys running around, some with binoculars, upstairs. That's why above the tables in older casinos, you'll see mirrors. Uh, they're two-way mirrors, they're above the tables. And if you're walking through an older casino, it's really cool because the way they're lined up, and you can imagine someone running around up there looking directly down on the game, watching it, and then going to another one watching the direct game. So if something were to blow up like that, A, it's very obvious. And if you did get away with the switch cleanly, if they were watching for whatever reason, you can't hide it. You're busted. I mean, it's just so obvious. Very scary move to do back in those days.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

You have to have a very strong turn. Not only the bosses, but the people upstairs.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Yeah, you have to have something. You gotta have something happen on another game that will draw surveillance. These guys running around up there off of this game to go check out what's going on in another game. I don't know, some kind of disturbance, someone crawling across the table causing a mess. They want to have as many eyes on that as possible. So they, you know, there's not a whole team up there, it's like three or four guys on a big casino. So they're running around. So if you draw them off the table, yeah, you can get away with that. But again, you're talking what ifs and maybes, and it's just not worth it.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

When you have a distraction like that, the sharp bosses will turn around and not look at the distraction. They'll immediately know something might be going down.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

That is a very valid point. If there's something catastrophic happening where everyone's gravitating to, that doesn't happen in a casino often. So smart bosses will sit there and go, okay, that's that's a disturbance. I'm gonna watch what's going on over here. Good point. So, how did we alleviate all of that chaos and move forward and destroy the casinos? One word, computer. Computer. Back in the 80s, when only about 8% of the population had a computer, we were destroying casinos with them.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

The computer cooler is really back then like Star Wars stuff. I mean, this was unbelievable. Well, the good thing about a computer cooler, we didn't have to worry if the dealer was hot or cold. We got the money.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

No, there are no hot or cold dealers. Cold dealers don't dump the thing, and hot dealers don't win the money for the casino. Cards come out as cards come out, period. There is no hot or cold to make them win or lose, or clovers under their ass, or anything else that's gonna make the casino win. It's all BS. So fast forward to the 1980s when we did the computer coolers. What is a computer cooler?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Computer cooler uses a computer and requires an entire team to get the computer cooler down in the casino.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Wow, a team. Time to meet the team. First, we need the dealer to be standing at a dead game. Once that's achieved, then the shills or players at the table will arrive at the table and take up all six seats and begin playing. Once a shoe is decided on which one they're going to record, the recorder shows up. Once the cards have been recorded, fault shuffled by the dealer and placed back in the shoe, the BP will show up, the big player, to win all the money.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Now that you saw the video of the team members, let's break down their jobs and responsibility. The obvious one is the dealer. The dealer is going to deal the cards so the recorder can record them, but then he's gonna false shuffle those cards. The recorder can do everything perfect, but those cards are shuffled. It's all for nothing. He's gonna use the sky shuffle.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

So we'll turn up one half face up so you can follow what's going on. So we break it, we shuffle it, and all we're doing is shuffling one on top of the other. Like this, bringing them together, pulling them back out again. Same thing. Shuffle the top on top of the top. And then when you strip, you strip from the bottom.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Everybody at the table is part of the team, the players. You're gonna be playing two dollars, whatever the minimum is. We don't want any attention here. Once the shoe is decided, which shoe, because in 45 minutes a dealer can deal about three shoes. Once the correct shoe is decided, there's a signal given, and the recorder comes up and stands behind one of the players. It'd be too tough for him to both play the game and record because the recorder can't make any mistakes. One mistake ruins the sequence of cards and ruins the computer cooler. He's gonna record. The player's gonna play pretty slow, and the dealer's gonna deal pretty slow.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

You don't want to very deliberate on both sides.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

You don't want to overrun the recorder. Once the plastic cut card comes out, that's the end of the shoe in the end of the recording of the cards. Now a few things happen now. The dealer is gonna start false shuffling those cards so the order is the count. And he's gonna use the sky shuffle, which we've talked about. Very easy false shuffle, and it's mainly used to fool the eye in the sky. The dealer is done false shuffling the cards. He gives one player the cut card, and the player cuts where the dealer marked the cards for the cut. The cards go into the shoe. Now one player will get up and leave so the BP, big player, can sit down and play. As this is happening, the relief dealer is waiting for our dealer to leave so she or he can take control of the game. Now she's not down with it, so she has no idea what's about to happen.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

She's just there to deal the cards. All the dirty work has been done by the deer that is now going on break.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

And that's the beauty of a computer cooler. They can film this now to rapture and analyze it. There's nothing to see.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

It's just like a player walked up to the game and got lucky.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

That's exactly what it looks like.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Once the plastic cut card comes out again, it indicates the end of the shoe and the end of the computer cooler. The BP, now with a ton of chips, is gonna go to the casino cage and cash out for cash. The players either stay, leave, they're not important. The recorder is the only one who's really important. Literally a motherboard strapped to his back. Of course, he wears a jacket. He has the keypad and the airpiece. He wants to get the hell out of the casino before they search him. Ironically, just before we got into the computer coolers, the state of Nevada enacted the device law, which made it very illegal with big penalties and jail time if you used any kind of device to beat the game of blackjack. And I think a computer might be considered a device.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Yeah, I don't think they much thought about that, but it is a very powerful device to beat the game, yes. And I think they would have gone and go, oh, this is creative. You get a lot more time.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Well, they'd want to make a now the evolution of the computer cooler. This was very interesting. What happens in the middle of a computer cooler? The boss comes up and tells the dealer to burn a card. Which can happen. That normally would ruin the computer cooler. Correct. Because the sequence would be out of order. Well, the programmers had a button which says discard a card. And now the sequence was back in sequence, and the computer cooler could continue.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

That's cool. It is now time for shorty time. You got something for us there, Dustin? Yes, I do. Right on. This year it.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

So we're doing a computer cooler, and you know, it's still kind of new to everybody. And the recorder is the most vulnerable person.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

He's got the merchandise on. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

So he's got this uh motherboard strapped to his back, and we parked pretty far away from the casino, and we're all walking in the parking lot to the casino. A gust of wind comes up and it blows his jacket almost over his head, and the motherboard is exposed. You never saw four guys run to one guy that fast, almost tackled him. Of course, he doesn't know what's going on at first, and then we tell him, and then he tucks his jacket literally into his pants so that motherboard doesn't get exposed by the wind.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

That doesn't look suspicious at all. Well, I think once he got into the casino. That's wild. It looked like a robot, I imagine.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Oh, yeah, because he had the uh earpiece too and the pad in his pocket. So imagine walking and already being a little nervous, and then four guys almost tackle you.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Dustin's gonna show us something. Okay, let's try something here. I tried to be fancy with an intro. Okay. Go ahead, take a cardoki and show it to the camera. I got it to the camera. There it is.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Okay, and just put it back. How can I not put it back? Okay. Got it?

SPEAKER_03 17:54

Got it.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Give him a cut.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Clay it. There we go.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Oh hell. No, you're still good. No, no, no. I think there's a joker in here. And if there's a joker in here, it won't work. No, I guess not. Okay. Concentrate on the card. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

I see a diamond in your case. Gotcha what you're doing with this. Gotcha. Okay. A diamond in the diamond, yes. Are you getting engaged?

SPEAKER_01 18:20

No.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

It's uh the five of diamonds.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

That is correct. Well, Dustin, we went through a lot of information here. Very interesting information. And I have a feeling that when you woke up this morning, decided to watch this podcast, you had no idea that computers were cheating casinos back in the 80s when they were the size of a pickup truck. That's very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

We talked about the regular cooler, which is ballsy. And then the computer cooler.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

And the four main people: the recorder, the BP who won the money, the dealer who did the sky shuffle as you saw. So the card stayed intact. And then the captain, which we'll elaborate more in part two, that kind of ran everything and was responsible for the timing of the computer cooler.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

And the one thing we did kind of touch on but left out are the B players, the people who sit on the table, lock up the table. They're important as well, but they're not the main factors. They're just bodies. They're like little chess pieces that we move around, but they're the ones who lock up the game, which is what the whole thing is about. Very I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

What we're going to do in part two is exactly that. We're going to run through the entire play. I had to play. And then you had a play. And I was a captain, and Kaiser was a dealer. So we can get two different perspectives on two different computer cooler plays.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

That's going to be very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Don't be a square.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Share. Definitely share. Hit that subscribe and notification and share the hell out of the show because I know more than just you like it. Until next week. Bye.