zg,
My work in the past has focused on systems programming. Always online, mostly sports, horses, and a taste of lottery. I tackled blackjack this year as a learning experience and to test a new platform. I thought blackjack was good because it is a skills game, and because the other products Ive seen were very poorly done, Im not even convinced they are blackjack.
If gambling is to wager at unfair odds, I think it is a poor long term financial decision, and an excellent career choice for those on the other side of the table. I gamble for entertainment. I dont chase because when I walk in my bills are paid, my savings is secure, my stomach is full, and Im just looking to have a good time and a bit of excitement, thats all.
My respect for sharps comes from my experience in sports where the book can make much more money if the sharps come in and correct the lines early. In a
casino if counters are a liability only, then I can understand the paranoia. On the other hand, if blackjack were not beatable it would not be as popular as it is today. As for the auto-shufflers, it must be a great asset to the casino in the short term. Take a busy floor, and eliminate the edge for card counters and you will get more profit. For the long haul (since I dont believe that shuffling every single hand is really blackjack, its no longer a beatable game) I would expect this to hurt casinos in the form of people not playing. In fact, I would expect no one who believes blackjack can be beaten to even consider playing at a table like that.
Its a tough line to walk. If the casinos are making more money throwing you out and they are swallowing their lumps from the bad publicity they get when you tell your friends, then it's probably not going to change. Id hope that offering a beatable game would attract more business.
The paranoid casinos certainly know more than I do when it comes to blackjack.
If this is their way of doing business and you still want a piece of them, then
under cover and out of the cross-hairs would be the way to operate.
Online is a different story. I think that a beatable game could be offered, and how beatable it is could be limited. A land based casino does not have the same options because players in general cannot be trusted to hold to a policy of limited action. The bottom line is, if the casinos arent making money at a certain game, then they are not going to offer it. If you are just getting a small piece of the pie, then Id imagine they would let it go for good PR until it got too big to ignore.
Blame the guys that wrote the books you read.
-lifesabet
Mayor.. kudos to you for being a professor that will hopefully spark the gaming interests of thousands of successful young professionals who may never master the game.... and know that everyone will be on guard when you walk into a casino coincidentally filled with college kids playing with big BRs.
