> 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.