Excuse to search, perhaps
To me, or any real counter, the thing is useless, much worse than useless inside a casino because it is illegal.
The gaming board has already overreacted to this thing and I am sure Nevada is drooling at the opportunity to make an example of the first few fools caught using these things inside a casino.
It does not do anything more than you already do in your mind and based upon my text messaging skill, inputting would be awfully slow compared to a moderate speed dealer.
The thing is, the casinos and gaming are making a big thing about it and it would not surprise me at all that instead of the usual semi polite backoff that we run into, some casino decides that they have the right to detain and search you first before backing you off based upon the possibility that the cell phone in your pocket may have a blackjack program on it.
On a personal note: I wong out of many rounds of DD with phony cell phone calls. The first round is dealt and it is loaded with faces and aces so I get or have to make a call. In the past several weeks instead of pits not noticing this they are almost following me like they want to see my phone up close. I generally will walk and talk and not be looking at the table at these times, so they should not be thinking that I am inputting something, but they are watching much more closely.
ihate17