Assaults on Mathematics of Gambling and Lottery
By Ion Saliu,
Founder of Gambling Mathematics, Founder of Lottery Science
Written on July 31, 2009.
I am amazed how intensely assaulted the mathematics of gambling and lottery is these days! What a difference a decade makes!
A started my Internet life a little longer than a decade ago, in 1997. There was a vibrant enthusiasm for mathematics as applied to gambling and lottery. Webhosting was quite expensive back then. Not many people had web sites. But there was the Usenet: Free newsgroups where people shared their interests. There were a number of newsgroups related to gambling, such as blackjack groups, roulette, craps, poker, etc. There were also several newsgroups dedicated to lottery and lotto games. Those groups had a large following all over the world. People were discovering and publishing and debating all kinds of systems allegedly based on mathematics.
My first contact with the Usenet came in 1998. I had just published my Fundamental Formula of Gambling (FFG). It did attract attention in a short time. I had just added a statistical service to my free-hosted website. I noticed a number of referrals from a newsgroup dedicated to the lottery: rec.gambling.lottery (still active now, 2009). I was amazed to read about so many lottery systems and even lottery software programs! Even people from academia participated in that group. They would present and debate sophisticated issues and formulae in theory of probability, statistics, combinatorics, math(s) in general.
I visited more and more groups related to gambling and lottery, especially related to mathematics. Mostly interested in: Roulette and blackjack. I noticed the same phenomenon: Even people from academia participated in discussions. Again, a plethora of formulae in probability theory, statistics, combinatorics, math(s) in general.
A noticeable attribute of Usenet: Flaming. Yes, there was enthusiasm regarding the win-ability of gambling, especially with the help of mathematics. On the other hand, there were some staunch skeptics. The opponents of the viability of gambling mathematics were so much more vocal and intense in their debating.
Soon, I became the favorite target of all detractors of gambling mathematics. It started with a gambling operator who hated me so intensely! He virulently attacked me in a series of emails, as you can read here: Gambling Formula, Randomness, Norman Wattenberger, Abuse of Laws, Narcissism of Bogus Complaints.
And I was the favorite target in the lottery group: rec.gambling.lottery. It was also my favorite newsgroup, as I had a whole lot more software dedicated to lotto and lottery games. Nobody has ever had nearly close an amount of lottery software, let alone the quality! The amount of optimism regarding lottery mathematics greatly outweighed skepticism. People couldn't get enough of lotto systems and software! Give us more, Ion, baby, they seemed to chant. They also chanted for other developers and authors.
I discovered soon that one reason of flaming me was interest-related. The attacks came from authors, developers, vendors of lottery systems and, especially, software. Such negative reactions are understandable, in some measure.
The same explanation of the attacks in the roulette and blackjack groups (and forums, later on): Financial interests. But I discovered a special category of attackers: The Casinos (Kasinos, as I tease them). The casinos had all kinds of agents whose mission was to discourage the idea of gambling mathematics. Soon, they identified me with the FFG — and they declared us Public Enemy Number One. The casino agents — I call them casino moles — are still active! They expected to intimidate me so badly, that I would fold up shop and run away in fear! When they realized they would NOT be able to intimidate me, the unexpected happened!
A casino chairman, yes, that high of an executive, took my newly opened message board by assault. He threatened potential gamblers to stay away from Ion Saliu's gambling theory and systems. Or else, the potential casino patrons would be charged with trespassing and thrown out! No writing in notebooks allowed inside the casino! I understand better now why the casinos were so confident in their defiance of the law: LAW was in their corner!
A different trend has developed in the past two-three years. There is stronger opposition to relating mathematics to gambling and lottery. The news in this trend is that the most vocal opponents and detractors of mathematics are those who started as proponents and strong supporters! They still have interests in the field.
Kind of schizophrenia, right? They still advertise their websites, systems, and software! Some of them still sell software and systems in the fields of gambling and lottery. Their potential customers are still encouraged to trust their "theories" and "systems" — they are true "winners"! Yet, they predicate in public forums that winning is never possible — it's all blind luck! But, then, again: Why are they still breathing in dedicated public forums? Why are they still promoting systems and software, including for money?
The only problem, the new detractors shout, is the M word. Mathematics! They insist that gambling and lottery represent RANDOMNESS. But what else is NOT random? As soon as you ask such a question, the new detractors of formulae mouth-foam curses at you! And they curse me even worse, although they avoid mentioning my name.
You know, there is no bad advertising! If they mention my name even in curses, many people would find out about my theories and software. Let everybody come and see, I say. The overwhelming majority of humans have the capacity to comprehend, including mathematical subjects. For all intents and purposes, I made gambling mathematics a common language. Plus, my software makes it even easier to delve deeper in phenomena that appear to be very complex. Everything is random alright. But mathematics can discern trends and possible outcomes that have higher degrees of certainty (DC). It is not only the probability, p, that counts!
Yes, I am the culprit now why gambling mathematics attracted so many new enemies. They associate the application of mathematics to gambling and lottery with Ion Saliu. First off, it is deeply venomous envy. They all wanted to make the same discoveries. I received pathetic forms of begging soon after FFG was published.
An alleged educator begged me in the name of… his students to close down my website (or at least remove FFG)! He badly wanted to claim credit for FFG! I believe that all parts of my gambling mathematics have been pirated in one form or another! There are a few examples on some of my web pages. Imagine what would happen if I close down my website! A big war among pirates would flame the world! Even guys in academia would start fighting one another — claiming my discoveries as theirs! A few of them do it as we speak, although my ideas have been online long before their claims.
Of course, there are also direct threats against my theories, even my person. Only those with a strong interest do it. It is less frequent these days, as I have never gotten intimidated by the snaky cowards. I participate far less in newsgroups or forums these days. I don't care much about those mouth-foaming cries against my gambling theories founded on mathematics. Because I ignore the vociferous attacks, the snaky cowards still attempt to bring down my website (hack-attacks especially). I keep going. Besides, my theories and software are in the wide usage now. Many people around the world apply my theories and use my software. Nobody can take away from me what I have discovered and created.
There is a legitimate question. Why ain't I a rich man as a result of winning with my gambling/lottery theories, systems, and software?
I showed here a true case of generating the jackpot winning combinations in a lotto game in 1986.
There are also several pages where I present new lottery software and show real data of hitting the lotto jackpot or pick lottery top prizes. The hits are not pure-luck occurrence. They show repeatability and go beyond 3-standard deviations (as in the rule of normal probability).
Developing software is a highly time-consuming activity. I spent a lot of time programming lottery and gambling software, especially after 2001. In retrospect, I should have stopped offering my software to the public in 2006. In cooperation with a number of users, I ironed out virtually all bugs in my grand application MDIEditor And Lotto WE. It is the current version that hundreds of thousands of people use it today. Alas, many of them use illegitimate copies of my software!
I made a strong commitment to allocate much more time to using my software and playing the lottery. There is little chance that dramatically new discoveries in lottery mathematics are possible now or in the near future. Also, upgrading my software is harder and harder, as the software has become more and more complex. I presented one group of lottery strategies. They are very rare in appearance, but they hit the jackpot with very, very few combinations. Even if one such strategy hits once in three years, I should have hit at least one jackpot by now.
I released recently a powerful upgrade to the horse racing software. I was nostalgic that day (actually last Monday, today is Thursday!) My nostalgia took me back to the place where my horseracing theory started. I had no horse race software at that time (1995). I just wrote down the results of the races at three tracks. I had three or four results at each track. I eliminated the trifectas that had come up before. I came with five or so trifectas to play. One of them was 6-1-3. It won straight at Sportsman's. The dollar amount was something related to the number of days in the year (very close).
The first result available today was at Fort Erie. Race #6: 6-1-3! It happened minutes before I entered. Fortunately, the trifectas paid little money (fifty bucks or so).
I was not in gear to gamble. Just for a couple of cold beers to quench my nostalgia. I wrote down the results of a few races running closely to one another in time.
6-1-3
11-1-6
9-2-8
1-8-3
3-1-6
I decided that 4, 5, 7 were to be played to-win. None of the numbers was in the 1st position — or other positions. It was six bucks per race. Three races in total. The first two had two of the 3 numbers in the trifectas. 4-1-7 and 4-5-9 (after a dispute). The third had 5 as the winner! Not very big to-win: $17, 6, 22. Deduct $18 and buy a cold carryout! Some races go sometimes to 50-1 long-shots!
I was a little more successful a few weeks earlier. A boxed trifecta paid over one hundred dollars. One problem at the horse racing facilities (I go to off-track wagering OTW) — I attract attention. Most bettors around see me using numbers only.
They ask me horse names and I don't know any — because I don't care about horse names, or jockeys, or the morning lines, or the current odds for the favorite… I take the lottery approach. The horses are numbers, like in lottery. The path of randomness is the only way. It is mathematics. Meanwhile, other people get angry. I rarely saw a winner at any OTW. Whenever I go to horseracing, I only see and hear bettors cursing, even crying! They do rely too heavily on so-called favorites. I wouldn't like to mess with losers too often!
How about casino gambling? Don't I claim all over this place that I am the best who ever was? Don't I challenge to a casino round every gambling author or system developer? You can read what happened to me in 2003: Casinos Bar, Ban Winning Gamblers, Skilled Gambling Players.
I was so strongly opinionated that the law was on my side — based on the Equal Protection Clause established by the U.S. Constitution. I filed a legal complaint against an Atlantic City Casino. I published the incident on this site.
I was even contacted by lawyers. I did NOT have all legal facts at that time. You'll get the chance to read on this page a monumental court document. I emphasized some paragraphs. Also, I paragraph-reformatted the document for much better readability. The court document reads like the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's Casino! You'll love it — unless you are a casino executive or a judge!
I wanted to go back to the casinos so many times, after 2003! I had made preparation to take even harsh physical abuse. One piece of legal advice I had received: Let them abuse you physically! Refuse to leave the casino, for you had done anything illegal. Let them apply physical force to remove you! I needed to pour a strong one in those decision-making situations. I would have second thoughts — and give up my casino gambling plans. I stayed home…
I traveled also to Motor City in June 2009. And that's how I discovered more things related to casino gambling. Here are some disturbing facts — before I reveal the most disturbing of them all, a court ruling.
Blackjack players, stay AWAY from those tables with continuous shuffling machines (CSM)! I witnessed troubling facts. One Detroit casino uses only CSM (Greektown). No player leaves the table as a winner — not even Parpaluck. The dealer gets blackjack or 20 in the first two hands five times better than any player!!!
By contrast, another casino in Detroit (MGM Grand) does not use any CSM. The results are what they should be mathematically. I checked many tables. I was also assisted by my daughter. She agreed with my findings, but only after serious analysis. She never agrees with someone just to be polite or just for the sake of agreement.
Stay away also from the electronic roulette. The table limits are very bad over there. Always look for the highest possible maximum limits. Actually, shop for a large ratio between the minimum bet and the maximum bet.
The two Detroit casinos I checked are also in bankruptcy, like virtually all casinos in the USA. They eat you alive now, and you got no appeal! The casinos are under court protection! One gambler gone-mad did kill a casino manager in Atlantic City late last year! The killer claimed that the casino cheated him and he had no access to a fair trial!
You wanna play blackjack big-time? Make sure it is a regular shoe. And make sure you start with the start: Card washing! And make sure the shuffling is done manually, in front of your very eyes. And make sure you cut the deal firmly.
Card counting? It is anti-mathematical. It is voodoo at its peak of insanity. They preach: "You, the chosen one, would get the high cards even though there are 6 more players at the table plus the BJ dealer!" In fact, low counts are far more favorable to the player. Those are the situations of double down: 4+5 or +6, or 3+6, or 7+3,4, etc. And, after two low rounds, the degree of certainty is higher that high cards are coming to round up that 9, 10 or 11 count. The dealer is not allowed to double down — or is it? NOT! BRRRRRRRRAHAHAHAHA!!! The player wins 55% of the double-up situations.
The casinos are indeed encouraging card counting. They admit it now. It attracts more players to the BJ table. It also gives the casinos a pretext to throw out a player WHO ALREADY LOST SIZABLE AMOUNTS OF MONEY. Just look at that film '21'. The MGM-Grand management admitted that was the reason why they sponsored the film plus permission to filming on the premises. It is also the blatant case of a gambling CD produced by John Patrick inside a casino, employing real casino personnel. If you, the regular guy, try to take a shot at a casino table — they throw you out immediately. They even arrest you in Nevada!
Playing blackjack against the CSMs is almost as close as playing against the online gambling software or the blackjack slots! The criminal devices simply defy mathematics! Listen, we talk here a game close to being a 50-50 proposition! Not 80-20 in favor of the casino!
Yes, there are streaks — sometimes they are longer. But the streaks follow mathematics, nonetheless. If the dealer gets 5 wins in a row, the player should also get 5 wins in a row. When I played against the CSM, I only had ONE streak of 4 consecutive wins in hundreds of hands. The dealers would get 7-8 consecutive wins as a matter of fact! And the dealers' consecutive winnings came against ALL players at the table! Mathematically, the dealer should beat, in every round, about 52% of the players (in 100 rounds).
Why does the reverse NEVER happen? Say, a majority of players get 5-6-7 consecutive wins, at the same table? Where is that 1-2% house advantage? It is more like 20% - 30%!!! Just look at the insane percentages of casino winnings in Atlantic City, 2008.
I ain't gonna say now how those CSM bandits work. Somebody might investigate one day. I know, I did my duty regarding the slot blackjack. Those areas are virtually empty in every casino. I contributed also to the virtual death of online gambling. They want to kill me for that! Only one government has the resources and morality to make sure that online gambling can be cheating-free. The United States Congress tries to pick up again the Internet gambling legislation. But it is very, very hard and requires serious resources to enforce a cheating-free online environment.
Brains, anyone? Of course, those who vehemently attack me for remarks like these do have brains. But the brains are not theirs! The brains are rented to the casinos for varying amounts of money. Ever wondered why so many silent would-be criminals mouth-foam as soon as you say "casino moles"?
I told my daughter I would write about those events. It took me longer than expected. I still have other legal issues to take care of. I also needed more legal information in the casino area. There are two famous cases that many gamblers talk about. Two blackjack players, Ken Uston and Anthony Campione, successfully defeated the casinos in tough court battles. There is, however, one lesser known case that reversed the legal trend favorable to the gamblers — on the East Coast of the United States.
Doug Grant, Inc. v. Greate Bay Casino Corp.
The case has numerous plaintiffs. All casinos in Atlantic City were defendants. It is the ruling of a federal court of appeals of interest here.
It was time-consuming, but well worth the effort. I reformatted the court document and I emphasized passages of interest. It increased the readability dramatically. When I imposed that formatting rule at my message board, I received some violent reactions (like style police!) Now, most members agree with me. Good text formatting increases the level of readability and comprehension. Also, the writer presents his/her ideas better. Our mind needs a pause now and then! The whole court document is here: Doug Grant, Inc. v. Greate Bay Casino Corp. - the Decision of the Federal Court of Appeals.
The court ruling (Doug Grant, Inc.) shows you how the court rulings read in Mafia cases — before FBI was successful in virtually dismantling Cosa Nostra in the 1980s. Blatant crimes were dismissed by weird interpretation of the laws. Looks like judges, before presiding over a court, were lawyers for the mob!
Hey, don't you feel so sorry for the judges! They ain't no angels by any stretch of imagination. I can tell you two extraordinary stories involving judges. The truths were revealed this year of grace 2009 (since Octavianus Augustus was granted tribunicia potestas — got nothing to do with the mythical year of birth of that pathetic character of that horrendously insane story name Gospel).
One judge in Pennsylvania was finally caught on fire. He had sentenced wrongfully thousands of juveniles to the juvenile criminal courts. In exchange, he received quite huge amounts of money from a private company whose business was related to the juvenile prison system. Thousands of lawsuits are pending against the judge — but also against the state government of the people. Sentence poor juveniles to harsh prison terms so that the bribing business thrives!
A casino owner here in Pennsylvania was imprisoned because of his hidden ties with the mob. He had been successful in a successful gambling license to own a casino in the newly kasino-territory of PennWoods — named after Penn, the stringent Quaker Christian who founded Pennsylvania!
But, hey, how about the land of the heart of this matter? The Sopranos land, baby! This glorious month of July, named after Julius Caesar, the uncle of Octavianus Augustus, New Jersey did it again! A large number of New Jersey mayors, and local government employees, and state government employees — including members of the state legislation! — were arrested by the FBI! Big time corruption and money laundering schemes that included original sons of Yahweh (rabbis, that is)!
The most astonishing mob-resemblance is the interpretation of discrimination in this casino-related court document! There are rules in place, the judges said. The casino gambling is ruled by the Casino Control Commission (CCC… it is KKK in Russian or German… C is pronounced differently!) If one knows the rules, and one knows that the rules are not favorable — one stays away from places ruled by such… rules! Said the judges:
"… the players, can avoid any injury simply by walking away from the alleged wrongdoers, the casinos, by not playing blackjack in casinos. In fact, that is what the casinos apparently want them to do, at least as long as they count cards."
Hey, if you know you are not supposed to mess with this mob territory — don't enter! Stay away from a dangerous territory! Forget about the laws! In fact, that is what the mobsters apparently want you to do.
"If the appellants have played blackjack in the past, aware of the casinos' countermeasures, and if they continue to play blackjack in the future in the hope of profiting by counting cards, they have suffered and will suffer self-inflicted wounds."
There was a famous discrimination case that took place in the 1990s. It involved a restaurant chain known as Denny's. Douglas McNeal and a group of African-American friends were treated in a discriminatory manner at a Denny's restaurant in Sacramento, California. The first lawsuit against the restaurant chain was filed in 1993 by a group of black teenagers in San Jose, California.
They charged that a Denny's restaurant there refused to serve them unless they paid for their meal in advance. The second lawsuit, which garnered widespread attention, was filed in Annapolis, Maryland, by six Secret Service agents. They charged that they were denied service at a Denny's restaurant while their white counterparts were seated and served immediately. In the end, Denny's mailed out checks totaling $46 million to customers claiming discrimination.
The courts in the Denny's cases acted in the spirit of the law. They did NOT dismiss the discrimination cases by stating, like our casino judges: "You, the Blacks, knew that Denny's was a racist entity. You could have avoided discrimination simply by walking away from the alleged wrongdoers, the Denny's restaurants!"
"Appellants allege that one appellant was knocked off his seat on one occasion, that some appellants were followed around casinos, and that one appellant was grabbed by the arm while being escorted out of a casino. However, THESE MINOR ALTERCATIONS CANNOT BE REGARDED AS CONDUCT EGREGIOUS ENOUGH TO SERVE AS PREDICATE ACTS SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT WHAT APPELLANTS APPARENTLY BELIEVE IS MASSIVE LITIGATION…"
You know what the godfathers say? "They are still alive, therefore no charges may be filed! They ain't dead!"
Look! It is so easy to mock this court document! That document should have not been ever written from a bench of the system of justice institutionalized by the Constitution of the United States of America! Those judges behaved like spokespersons for the mob!
I am sure this document would serve as a NOT-TO-SERVE-JUSTICE textbook. It absolutely distorts and tortures the United States Constitution! I will have to restrict myself to the most shocking points of obliterating the Constitution, while still claiming justice was served! Everybody can read the court document — and fear no reprisal. America is about the Freedom of Information rights, fellow American! Just read it for yourself. I made it a whole lot easier to read and comprehend by taking advantage of human evolution — Internet, in this case.
First off, the plaintiffs had a reasonable case to take advantage of their constitutional rights to due process and trial by jury. This case was dismissed so quickly, that the plaintiffs had a reasonable right to question the deciding judge. She (perhaps he) had financial reasons linked to the casino business. A very legitimate request that the appellate court rejected. Hey, they must be on the same bandwagon! Take it from a Pennsylvanian who heard way too much about corrupt judges or state government high-level servants.
So, we talkin' here about a case that was, in distorted manner, accessible only to those in the law connected with power-money. The courts simply denied the trial by jury because of a strenuously freaking legal technicality. The plaintiffs could not prove a material damage award! The Constitution provides the right to a trial by jury for damages larger than twenty-five dollars! Now, that's a meager bet at a blackjack table!
The discrimination plaintiffs against Denny's restaurants were not prohibited to file lawsuit because they had not stated a damage amount. Perhaps, most breakfasts at Denny's were far less than $25 per person. Far less, I'm sure. No courts in the Denny's cases asked for amounts of damages correlated to the breakfast ticket. And should never ask. The emotional damage is so high that it may not be expressed in numbers that not even the stupidiots comprehend!
The casinos in this Grant case were freaked out about trials by jury. Jurors are largely sane humans. They hate sometimes, like any other humans in the same category. But they understand the consequences of judging based on biases. In the casino lawsuits, the jurors never show biases based on color, or ethnicity, or gender. The jurors tend to be highly reasonable. That predicate is a huge scare for the casinos. The jurors would have decided, in mere hours, that the casinos discriminated against a group of blackjack players who were highly intelligent humans. Now you know why cases like this one very, very rarely reach the trial by jury! Almost never!
At the core of this case that has never reached trial by jury — absolutely bluntly against the U.S. Constitution — is discrimination. The F* criminally-biased judges redefine discrimination in an outrageously disturbing manner. It must be written in the Constitution ad literam. The father-mockers of the Constitution state that GAMBLING IS NOT A RIGHT GRANTED BY THE CONSTITUTION. Let's shout into their waxed ears: Neither is it the right to eat, impotent and frigid fools! Yet, rightfully so, the federal courts in the Denny's discrimination cases never required that eating was a right protected by the Constitution!
But is gambling a right granted only to a group of rich individuals who can afford to build and run economic establishments named casinos? For, the criminally inclined district and appellate judges in the Grant casino case did rule that the casinos had such special rights. Yes, let's emphasize such aberrant right in the next paragraph for the present and future to see:
"The CCC regulations authorize the casinos to use certain countermeasures to prevent card-counters from overcoming the statistical advantage that is necessary to ENSURE THE CASINOS' FINANCIAL VIABILITY."
Here we go, baby (a famous expression by the guy who became hugely famous for playing in Las Vegas… he also played in a crappy movie named Viva Las Vegas)!
THE CASINOS' FINANCIAL VIABILITY
What entity is guaranteed FINANCIAL VIABILITY by the Constitution of the United States? If that "guarantee" would have been known at the national level — sorry to say, I don't want to talk about tragedies here! There are so many weapons, so easily available, in the Land of the Free! Might be sad, but it is true!
That is NOT constitutional! That is formidably blatant discrimination. That is, an incredibly small number of individuals who can afford to own casinos are guaranteed by the authority of state that they are guaranteed FINANCIAL VIABILITY! How blatant discrimination is that? Does the Constitution, through its state branches, guarantee that the citizens of the United States have a right to FINANCIAL VIABILITY? I didn't think so. But, why the KASINOS?
Well, let's be fair. THE CASINOS pay a whole lot more in taxes than thousands and thousands of individual taxpayers! Okay, crocodilule! But what is the tax break of the insanely grandiose millionaires you create via a loophole in the Constitution? See, you fill their pockets with millions, even billions, when national economies struggle for mere hundreds to simply save ONE human life!
The individuals who own casinos (or own high share percentages) pay costs in hundreds but get profits in millions. Thanks, Uncle Sam! They pay you more, Uncle Sam. But the aggregate number of individuals could pay you much more in the healthy fields of economics. You, Uncle Sam, kick their arses into casino gambling. The super mathematician in me tells you that virtually ALL non-mathematical gamblers lose big, big time! You love that, don't you? They assign impotent suckers to their best ability! People lose more, casinos win more — it all leads to higher casino winning percentages!
The court ruling was written by the casino guys: Experts in law and experts in economics. I am almost certain that the document was written in some ultra-luxury suite in some Atlantic City casino. The degree of certainty is very high that expensive drinks were also served. Otherwise, it is hard to explain such an act of mockery of the United States Constitution.
Again, I made the court document far easier to read, without changing a word! You can read it also as a good manual to the game of blackjack. Do you think any judge would have such deep expertise? NOT! The judges make an outrageous statement as a blatant proof of lack of impartiality.
"...We are disturbed that appellants have couched their arguments in dramatic hyperbole obfuscating the real issues. Indeed, we are satisfied that the appellants have mischaracterized the facts."
Impartiality is supposed to be the backbone of Justice. Where has Impartiality gone in this case? The judges are satisfied that one party mischaracterized the facts! Did mischaracterization make it easier to rule in favor of your favorite party, judges? It's hard to understand how the passage above was left in the court document. It was clearly the argument of the legal experts of the casinos! The only explanation for the blunder: Drinking during the writing of the court ruling, in that luxurious casino suite!
How do you prove that a person counts card at the blackjack table? The burden of proof is with the casinos. The district court and the appellate judges assure — without the right to contest or appeal — that the casinos employ good electronic measures to prove card counting. They do NOT explain how those devices work! Is it another cheating device used by the casinos that must be kept secret for the sake of financial viability?
1) Granted, in this case, the plaintiffs/appellants stated openly that they were card-counters. They sought remedy for being discriminated against for their mental abilities.
2) The central point of the complaint was the casino counter-measure to shuffle-at-will. There is nothing illegal with that. Mathematics proves it beyond reasonable doubt. I would always prefer shuffle-at-will to continuous shuffling machines. Likewise, I would always want a new coin when tossing; a new lottery drawing machine; a new roulette wheel; etc.
A new device assures with the highest degree of certainty that the probability p is exactly the constant it should be mathematically. Therefore, I only have to deal with the two variables: Number of trials, N, and degree of certainty, DC. From a legal standpoint, shuffle-at-will is not discriminatory. All players at the table, counters and non-counters, are treated equally. Every player gets cards from a newly shuffled deck of cards — the same deck for the entire table.
3) Threats over the Internet have no material weight. The law, however, does NOT allow for such threats. The plaintiffs should have kept strict records, especially records of the IP addresses were the threats originated. They should have filed immediate complaints with the FBI and state authorities, plus complaints with the Internet Service Providers (ISP) where the threats originated. The plaintiffs should have also published on the Internet the threats in their entirety (especially full headers showing the IP addresses, dates and times, etc.)
4) The central point of the lawsuit should have heavily been DISCRIMINATION. Anthony Campione was successful in this regard. He focused on DISCRIMINATION against a citizen who was skilled in the game of blackjack. The blackjack, like any casino game, is random and must be random. If the game is not random, the casinos have no right to be in business. It is the law that establishes casino gambling all over the world.
The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled correctly in the Campione case. A skilled blackjack player does not alter the random attribute of the casino game. He or she does NOT interfere with the game in a physical way as to be considered cheating or fraud. The player does NOT even touch the cards or the deck of cards, except when cutting the deal.
5) In the Anthony Campione case (1987), Judge Barry Weinberg was not buying what Tropword was selling in this case and ruled that, indeed, Tropworld was in violation of the law every time it told Campione that he couldn't increase his bet to a certain amount when others at the table were allowed to do so. He also wrote: “It is discriminatory to allow others at the same table to play two hands while limiting Campione to one.” Weinberg also hammered the casino because at the times the dealer was told to skip over Campione during a round and at other times the dealer was told to short pay him.
The appellate judges in this Doug Grant et al. case, however, make one of the worst distortion to the Constitution. "… a casino licensee may, in its discretion, PERMIT a player to wager below the established minimum wager or above the established maximum wager at a gaming table."
The keyword is PERMIT. Permission is consequential to a request. You ask for permission. A gambler has a right to ask for permission to increase the maximum bet, for example. It does happen many times in casinos all over the world. Usually, higher-level casino management makes such decisions; i.e. gives PERMISSION to higher the maximum bet. In the Grant casino case, PERMIT is distorted to MANDATORY. And it is not the player who makes the request — it is the decision of the casino (a pitboss, usually).
PERMIT should have been the focus of the Grant lawsuit. That's where blatant discrimination occurs and that's the focal point of distortion of the U.S. Constitution by the federal appellate judges. One more reason why my belief is strong that the court ruling was written in a super-luxurious casino suite, by casino experts, and where super-expensive drinks were served. The judges rule out the discrimination issue as simple as: "… avoid any injury simply by walking away from the alleged wrongdoers, the casinos, by not playing blackjack in casinos. In fact, that is what the casinos apparently want them to do, at least as long as they count cards."
But, what IF I want to play, as other citizens are allowed? It is my personal case. I, Ion Saliu, am not allowed to play in Atlantic City as soon as I open a notebook. I do NOT count cards, because it is stupidiotic and it is encouraged by casinos as a rip-off tactic. The casinos will NEVER be able to prove that I bet correlated to a card-count.
No, the casinos have never abused me physically. But they interrupt the game of blackjack, as you read in the material at my site I early referred to. How about roulette? There is no card-counting at roulette! You can see on the same web page how they impeded my access to a roulette table. That's not in the rules established by N.J.C.C.C. or any state-regulated gambling agency. Yet, the casino chairman of MGM-Grand (as of 2001) bullied onto my message board and threatened my guests that the casinos have the right to throw out patrons who write down roulette spins in a notebook!
6) The plaintiffs/appellants in the Grant case had also a very strong case regarding consumer fraud. The CASINOS' FINANCIAL VIABILITY rule is deceptively kept secret. A U.S. citizen has a right to see the contents of the food they buy and eat. The consumer law requires all food companies to label their products, including a list of all ingredients. Worse, the tobacco companies are required to print clear warnings on their products. Casino gambling can be a lot more dangerous than cigarette smoking. Yet, nobody has ever seen a clearly visible announcement at the casino entrance:
BEWARE! THE LAW GUARANTEES THE FINANCIAL VIABILITY OF THIS CASINO!
The appellate judges simply resolve the consumer fraud issue by saying: "You heard about it! The casinos must make a profit. The gamblers must lose as a price for their entertainment. Consistent winning is bad for the casinos; therefore, the casinos have a right to counter-measures, including but not limited to seizure of all your money and violent removal of your corpus from the casino!"
That type of secrecy assures such huge winning percentages for the casinos. You were already referred to another material on my site regarding the insanely large winning percentages for Atlantic City casinos. You know that, by law, the slot machines must not have a house edge (winning percentage) higher than 10%. What? How about over 50%?
You expect the blackjack game have a winning percentage of 1-2% for the casino (the case of basic strategy players). Even mimicking the dealer should not lead to more than 8% winning percentage for the house. What? How about REAL winning percentages of 10 to 20% for the casinos? Huh? How about 20 to 30% for roulette? Huh?
I complained about the frenetic fraud employed by the blackjack a lot machines. Also, the slots in general. You don't think the FBI knows about such issues? They do, for sure. But FBI is stymied by the federal courts to investigate. The federal courts decided that casino gambling is a matter delegated to the states. Only agencies of the state governments (such as N.J.C.C.C.) have to right to control the casinos, including matters of fairness.
I can see the slot-blackjack areas almost empty. There are fewer and fewer such areas in the casinos. It is not because of law enforcement. Simply, more and more gamblers become smarter and smarter. Yes, many of them read what I write at this web site. They understand rather soon what makes sense and what doesn't. Given some of the threatening messages that I receive, I have had a serious impact on online gambling. Cheating in Internet gambling goes way beyond insanity. No wonder online gambling is fading away and crawling to its deathbed.
I see fewer and fewer table games in the casinos these days. Meanwhile, the regular slots areas gain a lot of territory. The table games are much related to smarties by the casinos. The slot machines are for the blind-minded, the casinos ruled. "Why should we deal with legal headaches caused by the table games?" the casinos asked rhetorically. "Let's eliminate all brainy areas! Let's offer only slot-machine gambling! There will be no lawsuits anymore!"
There will still be lawsuits. In the end, the federal law will intervene and institute some sort of order. The food companies are required to label the ingredients. The casinos will be forced to label their "ingredients" as well. The ubiquitous slot machines will have to label the truth. The slots are NOT fairly random. They keep track of how much money was inserted. The machines are programmed to spit out as much as the casinos want as winnings to the players. The take-out is far larger than the rumored 10%. The food labels are not based on rumors. The casino winning percentages must not be based on rumors, either. The law will force the casinos to publish the truth regarding the winning percentages and the non-random feature of the slot machines.
Gamblers with brains, your future looks disturbingly bleak! Just about every state wants a piece of the gambling pie. They adopt the slot-machine-only gambling model. The state governments knowingly accept the fact that the slot machines are programmed to make money for the casinos, while the players are left to believe that the machines are fairly random! But, hey, the governators would shout, who contributes more money to the state treasury? Huh? Yup! It's the casinos — but with money they robbed from ordinary citizens!
Well, since the foundation is mathematical, I will keep my website up for as long as I possibly can — my lifetime, hopefully… a long one! I will keep researching and publishing. I might even take the chance someday to be physically abused. That is, I will open a notebook while gambling in a casino!
"I received a phone call
From one who claimed was tall.
Then, he cursed me even worse
For my gambling on the horse."
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