If the indian reservation casinos don't have a gaming commision, can they legally cheat with cards?

Question

I know that Las Vegas has an independant gaming commision that would take down the casino if they suspected cheating... but do california casinos like san manuel and morongo have independant gaming commissions doing random audits to ensure they're not cheating? I always hear people losing at indian casinos but at least a few people win in vegas here and there.... any idea if they can legally cheat? You know it is easy to cheat if you really want to with those automatic shufflers and all...

Answer 1

they are in fact regulated by the government.

http://www.nigc.gov/

note the .gov which is reserved for us government  use only  indian tribes cannot obtain a .gov url...

also from the front page:

"The Commission’s primary mission is to regulate gaming activities on Indian lands for the purpose of shielding Indian tribes from organized crime and other corrupting influences; to ensure that Indian tribes are the primary beneficiaries of gaming revenue; and to assure that gaming is conducted fairly and honestly by both operators and players.

To achieve these goals, the Commission is authorized to conduct investigations; undertake enforcement actions, including the issuance of violation, assessment of civil fines, and/or issuance of closure orders; conduct background investigations; conduct audits; and review and approve Tribal gaming ordinances."

Answer 2

I don't think the Indian Casinos need to cheat, most gambling activities have a built in high profit margin.

However, I do know for a fact that some of them "improve this house edge" in certain areas.

For example, in Michigan, at one point, all Indian Casinos were supposed to have a minimum average payback on their slots at 80% as part of a deal with the state. Yet certain casinos have been found on numerous occasions to have average paybacks of under 60% when the state came in to audit the slot machines. All that happened was that they had to pay a fine to the state, and this fine was a lot less than the cash they took in by the low paying slots.

So they kept it up, because the fines were less than the profits.

They also set the rules for blackjack (and other tables games) using many player unfavorable rules, such as double down only on 10 or 11, one split only, hit soft 17, etc. making the game far more favorable to the house.

And if a table gets hot for the players, it get shut down fast.

And of course they gave little if anything in the way of comps.

For the most part, the Indian run casinos I have visited here in Michigan, and in some other states are far more greedy than others such as the ones in Detroit, Windsor, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and others where there is true regulation.

Answer 3

What would be the point in cheating.  Every single table game has a house edge.  Every slot has a house edge.

What's the point in cheating, and risking a huge scandal, if you will automatically win due to a house edge anyway?

And to claim that lots of people win in Vegas, and don't in Indian Casinos is a bit outlandish without any evidence.  Vegas didn't became the gambling center of the world by creating a bunch of winners.