I'll start by answering a tricky question asked by @vap76. The question is "does the dealer cheat the guest?" As @Zhyllik noted, it all depends on the status of the casino. That is, any self-respecting casino will never engage in such shady dealings, and of course, any such situation will be strictly nipped in the bud. Therefore, I can say with confidence that this definitely did not happen in more or less large casinos. And in general, in the era of legal casinos, cheating on the part of the casino, if it was practiced at all, was very rare and in few places. And since legal casinos sank into oblivion, and underground ones appeared, that's when I began to hear and see more and more often such situations, when casinos, with the help of dealers who knew how to work miracles with cards, began to act dishonestly towards players...
I'll tell you more about it using my own example. Already in the underground era, we had a period when the establishment was being harshly swept away by players for a month, almost every shift closed in the minus and the situation became critical. And then they sent us help from another, larger establishment, our network, as they told us, "more experienced and more successful dealers." Three of their young men arrived, and after the first shift it turned out that they were no better than us) However, this was only the beginning of the show. In general, after a day or two, one of these businessmen began to constantly take large sums from players at poker. Naturally, we did not know about his talent, for security reasons we were not told anything, it was only later that we learned from him that he knew how to properly shuffle the cards as he needed. And of the three who arrived, he was the only one who knew how to do all this, the other two were apparently for disguise. Now I'll tell you how it was all done. When the dealer shuffles the cards, he makes the so-called "butterfly", i.e. divides the deck into two parts, takes the lower corners of the cards, lifts the corners up and gradually lowers the corners of both halves, and the cards are shuffled. This dealer raised the corners of the cards much higher, and he could see the cards while shuffling, and somehow collected the cards he needed closer to each other. Unfortunately, I cannot give a more detailed description, since I myself do not have such a talent, but I will try to convey the general idea. He could shuffle for a long time, an ordinary dealer makes 3-5 butterflies, this dealer could make 10-15 butterflies, and he always talked to the guests at the table to distract them and not attract attention. Or someone from the management also stood next to the table and simply distracted the guests' attention until the dealer shuffled the cards the way he needed. Then he would press his fingers on the place where he needed to put the cut card, give the cut card and the deck to the player, the player would "cut" the deck, and the dealer would simply pull the "cut" out of the deck where the player had cut and put it in the place he had already prepared and marked for himself. As they say, sleight of hand and no cheating) It was completely unrealistic for a person who did not expect any trickery from the dealer to notice anything. Moreover, everything was done at such a good level, quickly and efficiently, that even we, when we played among ourselves in the absence of guests in the establishment, could not always understand and follow how he did it all) Well, then the dealer would deal cards to the players and himself, already knowing his own and the guest's cards. Then, of course, the client's cards would turn out to be lower in combination than the dealer's, and the dealer would simply win. Of course, there can't be a 100% result here, and such "magicians" sometimes made mistakes, sometimes in order to divert any suspicions from themselves they deliberately lost to a player for the entire shift, and so on for several hours, and then, when the player relaxed, they went out and beat him hard and took everything clean. They also had another trick (I will talk about them in the plural, since later I was convinced that the work scheme of all such "magicians" is the same) So the trick was that after the cards were dealt, they always held the deck in their hands, although according to the rules they should put the deck on the table, and managed to discreetly, while the players were looking at their cards, peek at the next 3-5 cards in the deck. Then they entered into a conversation with the player, looked at their cards, saw that the player needed, for example, an Ace in order for him to collect a combination of straight and the player would definitely change one card. Then, knowing that the next card in the deck was an Ace, which the player really needed, they simply pushed the top card in the deck away with their thumb and pulled out the next card under the guise of the top card, which was a completely different and unnecessary card for the player. There were times when I myself played in other casinos, sat at the poker table and, knowing these features, always closely watched the behavior and hands of the dealers. And if something aroused my suspicion, I simply told the dealer not to hold the deck in his hand, but to keep it on the table. In response, I heard that it was more convenient for me, I was used to it, and knowing the rules, I simply reminded the dealer of them and he had no choice but to keep the deck on the table. And as if by magic, I suddenly began to win, and the dealer began to get noticeably nervous and was soon replaced.
In general, all such frauds, as far as I know, are easier to pull off with cards, that's why they happen most often in poker. I didn't know a single dealer at roulette who could "make up" something like that. Of course, there were dealers who could throw out the right number or at least the number next to the right number 4-5 times out of 10, there were dealers who could throw the right sector 8 times out of 10 without problems, I myself could easily hit the right sector 6-7 times in a row, but it was very difficult, especially since the player could put his bet in the sector or number you were aiming for at the last moment, and then you let yourself down and paid out the winnings. That's why nothing criminal usually happens at roulette. In general, roulette in many casinos was their weakness, the weakness of the dealers, because they did not know how to work it well. With the right desire, skill and money in reserve, it was not difficult to take out a roulette for a large sum in such an establishment. The only problem could arise in the fact that unscrupulous managers could close the roulette so that no one could play on it, and this was done easily and simply. At the moment when the player is in excitement, and is winning at roulette, the waitress brings the order, for example, tea, juice, water, etc. takes it all from the tray and when trying to put a glass of juice on the table, "accidentally" drops it, the table is flooded with juice, tea, water, it allegedly becomes impossible to play and the manager tells the guest that the table is closing, it will open in 30-40 minutes. At this time, the player goes to poker, where he loses everything. In such a simple way, the casino can easily avoid a big loss. I myself got into such a situation a couple of times in one underground casino, where the roulette after my winnings miraculously became unfit for play. After that, of course, I stopped visiting this place)
Now I will answer the question of Pikabu user @Doomyk. The question is “do you have any problems with employment after working as a croupier, did we pay fines after the “raids” and was anything entered into the database.
Let me start with the fines. We didn't pay the fines ourselves, since it wasn't our fault, we just gave the receipts to the management, and they paid for us. In general, the fine is administrative, so it shouldn't cause any special problems and it didn't cause any for me. Now about employment. In order to avoid any problems, the main thing is that there are no official entries in the work book. I was lucky, I was never officially employed and was never officially identified as a croupier. Therefore, thank God, I have no problems with this. Now I work for a large oil company, and I passed the security check without any problems. But indeed, many of those who were officially employed, with an entry in the work book, later had problems with getting a good job, and because of this one entry they were simply denied work. Therefore, such work can make itself known in the future, in the form of such problems.
Well, and finally, I will tell you a story that I will remember for the rest of my life. A story about how, having won 500,000 rubles in a casino, I left with practically nothing.
One fine day, we were already working in an underground establishment, our manager returned from vacation, and since we communicated very well with him, we were both from other cities, we just worked here, and sometimes liked to skip a couple of glasses of whiskey with him, then after returning from vacation, during the night shift, he comes up to me and offers to wash down his vacation pay in the morning, which he was paid only after the vacation. It was my last work shift, the weekend was ahead, and I immediately agree. In the morning, after the shift, going outside, we realized that it was still too early and all the establishments were closed. And nothing better comes to our minds than to go to the slot machines next door, play and drink beer, waiting for the opening of the nearest bar. Having entered the slot machines, my older friend immediately begins to play at very high stakes, which of course I did not expect. Seeing that we came with money, the employees of the slot machines set a mini table for us, with snacks and a bunch of different alcohol. And then, drunk, we simply lose all his vacation money, which is about 70 thousand rubles, without fully realizing what is happening. In the evening, having come to our senses and having had a hangover, we come to the conclusion that we need to win back the money, but slot machines are not suitable for this, the chance of losing everything again is too great. We decide that we need to get into any of the many underground casinos in our city. There is only one problem - how to get there. Then he calls one of the players, explains to him that we want to play in the casino, and we need his help to get inside. In response, we hear assurances of help, and half an hour later a car picks us up, a friend borrows money from someone in the amount of 80,000 rubles, which I was against, since the amount is large, and then we go to the casino. Having gone inside and sat down to play at the poker table with high stakes, literally in half an hour we completely lose everything, I suggest leaving, to which my friend sends me to go for more money. In general, I brought another 50,000 rubles, our debt grew to 130,000, which weighs heavily on me, and not even an hour passes before everything repeats itself. In general, we left this establishment with only 8,000 rubles in our pockets, and headed to the next one, stopping along the way and borrowing another 30,000. I understand perfectly well that I got involved in this adventure in vain, my friend is very drunk, does not understand anything, but there is nowhere to go and we go on. In general, we stayed in the second establishment until lunch with varying success, I get tired of all this, and I go home to sleep, my friend stays to continue playing. Waking up a couple of hours later, I call my friend and in response I hear, come urgently. Having got ready, I go to him and upon arrival I see an absolutely interesting picture: a friend has won back all our lost money, brought it and is already winning 100,000 rubles playing poker at the maximum stake. I sit down next to him and in a couple of hours our winnings have already reached 300,000 rubles. I try to persuade a friend to exchange the money and leave, to which I hear in response that it is not enough yet, as soon as we win a million, we will leave. In general, he does not give in at all, and at the same time next to our table they have set up a separate table for us, with a bunch of different delicacies, expensive snacks and expensive cognac. In general, eat and drink, just play and do not leave the establishment. And that is what my partner fell for. Oddly enough, we continue to win and when we had 500,000 rubles in chips, I somehow persuade him to get up and leave. We get up, go to the cash register and then come across a very dirty trick of the casino, which I have seen more than once, but never personally encountered it. At the cash register they tell us that "the cash in the cash register has run out", wait a couple of hours. All this is done so that while the player is waiting for cash, out of boredom he takes out his chips and starts playing while waiting, and then the casino puts the strongest dealers against him and gradually the player loses, and if the excitement is strong, he plays to the last. This is what happened to us. The comrade, of course, sat down to play and we dropped to 300,000 rubles. At this point my patience runs out, I begin to drag him out of the establishment by force, telling him that we will come later and exchange the chips for money. At the cash register we were able to exchange only 30,000 rubles and with this cash, with 270,000 chips in our pockets and in a great mood we leave and go celebrate our winnings. In general, that night we never got to the casino to exchange the remaining chips, deciding that we would do it the next day. And in the morning, drunk and in a great mood, we go home. In the afternoon I wake up from an insistently ringing mobile phone. It was my friend calling. Picking up the phone, he tells me in a dead voice that at night, while we were celebrating our victory, there was a big raid on this establishment and the casino was shut down by the UBEP officers. And it didn’t immediately dawn on me that we would never see our money. All that was left as a souvenir was a handful of chips from that ill-fated underground casino…
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