Stupid, stupid, stupid

The longer I gamble in Vegas, the more examples I see of stupidity on the part of casino management. Here is the latest:

Recently I was at the Hard Rock Hotel, where I had not played blackjack for several months. The HRH usually has one table of double deck open with good rules and a $25 minimum, which is what I have played there in the past.

I had a match play coupon from the American Casino Guide and some time on my hands, so I decided to play this game. I sat down at the usual table and played for about 35 minutes before getting my first blackjack, which came (as usual, it seems)on a mimum bet.

The dealer threw me two chips: a quarter a nickel. $30.

"Whoa," I said. "That should be $37.50."

The he informed me that this game had been changed to 6-to-5, even though that casino is full of 6-to-5 single deck games with a $15 minimum.

The limit signs at the HRH are electronic, with information about the games crawling across the bottom of the sign: "Double deck blackjack ... Blackjack pays 6-to-5 ... Double after split allowed ..."

I had glanced at the sign when I sat down, but not long enough to see the big change.

I colored up my chips and apprached a floor person to ask what happened and express my feelings. She told me that game had been hit hard by counters and the change was made about a month ago. I told her I was done playing blackjack at the Hard Rock until the full payout for blackjacks was restored. She was entirely sympathetic and pointed out that the number of players on that table was way down since the change was made.

Apparently, table games management was under pressure to make up the loss the casino had incurred by its failure to detect the counters before they did significant damage. So what did they decide to do? Punish their regular customers, and ensure that the game would make less money than before the invasion. Great thinking, guys! It's as if I owned a convenience store and someone unplugged my refrigerator, leading to all the milk going bad. So, to make up for my loss, on my next shipment of milk, I triple the price, thinking my customers either won't know the difference or won't care. (Changing the rules and paytables for casino games is, in fact, changing the price -- the customers' theoretical loss -- which many casino managers don't seem to understand.)

So, what should the HRH have done? I would have re-evaluated its methods of detecting advantage play, and I would have given customers more of a reason to play blackjack there, such as mailing out free bets and holding drawings or other promotions. It's sad to think that all the managerial talent at a major casino could come up with is punishing -- and pissing off -- its regular customers.