Languages at the tables?

[NDN21]

How do casino's combat/deal with different languages at the tables?

I would like to know what is keeping a team of, say, Koreans who speak Korean from counting out loud (in Korean) and sharing it with the other Koreans. They could keep track, on an individual basis, of aces, fives, tens, etc. as well as the RC and TC. That is one person keeps tracks of the running count and true count conversion, another keeps track of aces and/or fives, another keeps track of another card or set of cards count, etc.. They then share that information with each other in the Korean (or any other) language. They could develop a strategy then bet smarter as they would have a better idea of what is actually left in the deck.

At the smaller casinoes out of Vegas many don't have any sort of foreign staff that could understand a team of people who can talk a foreign language. What do the casino's do to deal with a team of people who can talk to each other in a foreign language and talk about whatever without the casino personnel knowing what they are talking about?

[ihate17]

If you can signal legally, you can speak. So it becomes the casinos responsibility to figure this out and perhaps back them off. If they can not figure it out before a big loss to this team, they will work on it after paying them.
On the other hand, I have been in casinos where they insist all conversations be carried on in English. This may present a problem with players who do not speak English and could be illegal, but this was on Indian land where whatever they want is legal.

ihate17

[sagefr0g]

Originally Posted by ihate17

If you can signal legally, you can speak. So it becomes the casinos responsibility to figure this out and perhaps back them off. If they can not figure it out before a big loss to this team, they will work on it after paying them.
On the other hand, I have been in casinos where they insist all conversations be carried on in English. This may present a problem with players who do not speak English and could be illegal, but this was on Indian land where whatever they want is legal.

ihate17

yes i've seen this also in an Indian casino. only English is allowed at the poker tables. i doubt if it's strongly enforced though. haven't seen it at blackjack tables though.

best regards,
mr fr0g :D

[Mikeaber]

Originally Posted by sagefr0g

yes i've seen this also in an Indian casino. only English is allowed at the poker tables. i doubt if it's strongly enforced though. haven't seen it at blackjack tables though.

best regards,
mr fr0g :D

I've seen it enforced strictly. Yes, Indian casino (Golden Eagle) in Kansas.

[Automatic Monkey]

Originally Posted by ihate17

If you can signal legally, you can speak. So it becomes the casinos responsibility to figure this out and perhaps back them off. If they can not figure it out before a big loss to this team, they will work on it after paying them.
On the other hand, I have been in casinos where they insist all conversations be carried on in English. This may present a problem with players who do not speak English and could be illegal, but this was on Indian land where whatever they want is legal.

ihate17

I've seen it enforced too, except in a poker room in California where they allowed Chinese at the Panguingue tables because that's what everybody at the table was.

It wouldn't be that difficult for a team to learn maybe 20 words of an arbitrary language (like Klingon- http://klingonska.org/ref/num.html ) to communicate at the table.

[ortango]

of course english can only be used with a dealer though.

In Korea where I'm playing, all of the dealers are trained in basic Japanese and English and of course know Korean. Some Chinese also. However, most of their English and Japanese is limited to basic BJ terms and numbers. I can talk about basically any strategy I want without heat, and although I shouldn't, they just make it too easy. They really have no clue as to what something like wonging, tracking or even what counting means. Stuff I wouldn't even THINK about saying in an American Casino, I can practically teach someone there how to do it. But yeah, it would still be stupid for me to talk about it.

[ihate17]

Originally Posted by ortango

of course english can only be used with a dealer though.

In Korea where I'm playing, all of the dealers are trained in basic Japanese and English and of course know Korean. Some Chinese also. However, most of their English and Japanese is limited to basic BJ terms and numbers. I can talk about basically any strategy I want without heat, and although I shouldn't, they just make it too easy. They really have no clue as to what something like wonging, tracking or even what counting means. Stuff I wouldn't even THINK about saying in an American Casino, I can practically teach someone there how to do it. But yeah, it would still be stupid for me to talk about it.

Ortango

Going back over 30 years ago, I taught a night class of conversational English, at a large Korean University. The students had been learning English since they were 10 years old, had excellent vocabularies, but needed practice and confidence building in speaking it. Now they did not know many slang words and were probably much better educated than your dealers, but I would think that there are several people on that casino floor who if they heard you explain counting, may not know what "Wonging means" but will know what you are talking about. This would be especially true if the you were there with another person and they already suspected you of advantage play.

ihate17

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by Automatic Monkey

It wouldn't be that difficult for a team to learn maybe 20 words of an arbitrary language (like Klingon- http://klingonska.org/ref/num.html ) to communicate at the table.

You could even use English (or whatever your native language is) by using "peg" words. The link below is an interesting discussion we had about memorizing cards, but the system has also been used to pass signals and messages to teammates:

http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/showthread.php?t=1972

-Sonny-