About casinos cheating at blackjack, wouldn't removing certain cards from the deck change their edge?

Question

I ALWAYS lose at the blackjack table at one particular small casino. What would removing certain cards do to their edge, say removing some small cards or 10 count cards, whatever would give them that extra edge?

Answer 1

The casinos don't need to cheat because they already have the edge. All games are in favor of the house!

Answer 2

Yes, but they would get caught and loose their license, costing them millions, if not billions, of dollars.  It's more likely a combination of you're just bad at blackjack and the fact that the house has an edge in every game.  BJ is just the smallest, assuming you're good.

Answer 3

removing face cards and aces helps the house.  that is because if you get blackjack, they have to pay you 3 to 2 but if they get blackjack they only get your original bet.

No major casino would do this.

Answer 4

Then why play?

There are over 3,456 different rule combinations for Blackjack commonly used.  The exact combination of house rules will determine the house edge.  But in all combinations, the house has an edge and you will lose over time.  They wouldn't spread the game if this were not the case.

Most casinos are not going to run the risk of cheating though, because even small casinos make a lot of money.  Cheating the customers will get them closed down, and why risk their entire business when the game already has a good house edge to begin with?

Answer 5

yes. it's common in Korean casinos. removing facecards helps the house.

Answer 6

"Always" is a very broad term, to have any signifigance of a trend in gambling always has to represent hundreds maybe even thousands of trials before variance is almost entirely ruled out.  You are playing a casino game with a hosue advantage and it is not unikely at all that 10, maybe even 15 consecuative trips will be losers, especially if you play foolishly.

However in terms of cards being removed, It is very rare, but not unheard of for this to happen.

Removing tens/aces from the deck will increase the odds dramatically if enough of them are removed.

It is possible to detect this using a ballanced card coutning system, and noting that the count at the end of a shoe is always positive, if this ever happened to me i would rip the deck from the dealer hand/shoe and verify it right then and there, as that is likely the only way you could do so since casinos that would do this likely dont fall under the jurisdiction of some type of casino control group.

Casinos in the united states would never attemt such a scam as they would be slapped enormous fines and lose their buisness if hey were caught.  Also, they make tonnes of money as is and dont really need to.

Answer 7

If an American casino were caught doing this, they would be shut down.