I assume there are a lot of games being played in Vegas at far from reputable establishments, where the owners of such places would love to kick the odds in their favor.

You know, the kind of place where your alcohol is mostly water (or floor cleaner) and clothing is optional for the wait staff.

> I assume there are a lot of games being played in Vegas at far from reputable establishments, where the owners of such places would love to kick the odds in their favor.

Or where a dealer would collude with players for the right price.

> the kind of place where your alcohol is mostly water

The less reputable places would typically have a vested interest in decreasing your judgment and inhibitions, not in keeping you clear-headed. Remember that many casinos will reward high-rollers with free drinks, among other perks.

Not all businesses are run optimally. Some even favor short term gains over long term profit and reputation. Particularly shady casino type businesses.

And if they catch you cheating, you'll be find dead in a dumpster somewhere.

You watch too many movies.

Indeed. Vegas is about as sanitary and clean as it gets. There's almost no sleaze left. Fremont at night can get sketchy, but only in the sense of desperate poor people.

But I guess that's how good they are at selling the myth of Vegas. They want you to believe it's wild, sexy, out of control, and naughty. In reality, it's all highly regulated, calculated, and completely under control by large corporations.

That depends a lot on your definition of sleazy and sanitary.

Nah, not any more. These days the casinos are run by big corporations and cheating is illegal. They just call the cops like anybody else.

A few generations back it was different, since if you were cheating you were stealing from organized criminals instead of nameless shareholders. It was their money and they took it personally.

Finding the right mark has to be at least half of the work you'd expect to do anyway.

Also dead if you catch them cheating.

Casinos ban cell phones at black jack because you are playing against them. The allow cell phones at poker because you are playing against other players. You can bet that the casino is not aggressively putting security into watching poker dealers. They make rake regardless of the cheating as long as customers don't stop walking in the door.

Yeah, definitely this. The gambling scene is heavily involved with exceedingly shady characters and I can't imagine the vegas police particularly investigate too hard on deaths of people who are cheating others and undermining the economy that supports themselves and everyone they know.

The penalties for getting caught doing this in Vegas are very harsh[1]. Looks like 1-6 years six imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.

[1] https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-465.html

This would never work in vegas for a bunch of reasons. I think this kind of thing would only work in a home game where you are mostly playing with friends/acquaintances. Maybe you're okay with cheating strangers in vegas, but you'd really have to have no conscience to be cheating your friends.

What keeps you from marking the cards as you play with them? Maybe some special invisible die on your fingers.

I know rooms rotate through decks, but how often?

In many table games against the house (e.g. blackjack), they won't even let you touch the cards (at least in the big casinos on the strip).

How are you supposed to look at your cards if you can't touch them?

They are visible to everyone.

How would you apply those markings with your fingers? They need to be pretty precise, so that the device can recognize them properly.

The whole deck doesn't need to be marked. Mark two aces in a deck and you have a reasonable advantage in hold 'em on a reasonably full table.

Not for this device, but in general.

Most places won't let you have your phone anywhere near the table. Awesome technology, just not built I think for Vegas.

Completely not true at least for poker. In the last 5 years, I've never been asked to put my phone away, at least as long as I'm not talking on it.

I've never played at a place that banned phones. That casino probably wouldn't have many players.

At every casino I've been to they will yell at you if you pull your phone out at any table game. If you want to respond to a text you need to step away from the table and wait a hand/spin to bet again.

You shouldn't be fiddling with your phone when the action is on you. Using your phone while you're out of the hand is totally fine.

Most places I've played won't let you use the phone at the table, and if you're using it they'll deal you out and ask you to get up.

But they don't care if your phone is on the table.

I think this is more to keep the game moving than any concern about cheating.

> any table game

This isn't about the house-run, house-edged table games you find in the middle of casinos; it's about Texas Hold 'em poker rooms. Most poker rooms I've been to let me keep my phone on the table next to my cards. I doubt that'll be the case now.

I don't see why it would change, this requires a special rigged deck of cards. IIRC card decks are a tightly controlled affair in major casinos.

just wait for someone to embed this into their watch

That was one of the options for the remote camera (they got the car key). :)