Time 4 a Vegas trip.....


There's a new card-counting iPhone application that could make blackjack a lot more profitable. The Nevada Gaming Control Board has warned casinos about this tool, which uses a variety of methods to produce an accurate count and can be operated stealthily. In theory, this could make someone like me, a non-gambler, as good as the best counter in Vegas. And this is where regular folks can easily become criminals, because although it is legal to count with your head and eyes in Vegas, it is a felony to use a device to assist you with card counting in Nevada. Howart Stutz reports in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"The program calculates the true count and does it significantly more accurately," according to a Gaming Control Board memorandum sent to casino operators last week warning of the electronic device.

I don't gamble. And, in many cases, my ignorance of the most basic aspects of Nevada's leading revenue generator can embarrass me. Recently, I was sent to make a Super Bowl bet for a friend with no clue that the sportsbook windows don't take Visa bank cards. Until recently, you could not have a cellphone in a sportsbook either. Now, you can have your cell at the sportsbook, but due to that new app, soon your iPhone might not be welcome on the casino floor at all.

To backtrack: I have a couple of good reasons for not gambling. The first one is that I do not find it fun.

I once interviewed a high-end Vegas escort while doing a story on a high roller who was paying her thousands a night to keep him company during his Vegas spree. We were sitting, watching him play hand after hand, betting $40,000 on each hand. I asked her about the hardest part of her job. She pointed to the man playing blackjack. "Trying to act like I care about every hand. Watching cards is the worst part of the job." I agree. Even when I'm the one playing, I have a hard time staying interested.

Also, I like to gamble as though I don't care. At the blackjack table, I have no problem asking for another card when I'm at 18. This practice doesn't technically affect other players, but such stupid playing infuriates them, and they truly believe that I cost them money with my bad choices. But the laws of chance don't work that way. Still, explaining why my behavior cannot, mathematically, hurt them doesn't win friends when so much money is at stake and the game is taken so seriously.

But my major reason for not gambling can be traced to an adventure I had with an expert card counter shortly after I moved to Vegas. We went to an older casino that still dealt from a single deck, which makes the counting easier. When counting, a player knows the moment when the house's slight advantage in the game shifts to the player. That's when the counter will place his or her big bets. But even with that knowledge, the player's advantage is slight. A great card counter could easily lose every hand, even when, theoretically, he or she has the advantage. That wasn't my experience. I doubled my money in under an hour. And yet, I had no idea why. The card counter's explanations were esoteric and complex to me. I knew that without that counter sitting next to me, telling me exactly what to bet and when, I would be doomed. I haven't played blackjack since.

Counting is legal in Nevada, but it is so hard to do right that I suspect casinos make a fortune off tourists who have read a couple of books on counting and come to Vegas to try their luck. It isn't that counting cards is harder to understand than any advanced math -- it is only statistics in a broad sense -- but with the speed of play and multiple decks used by most casinos, you really have to be a math wizard to pull it off. And the few people with those kinds of math skills can find a job a lot less risky than blackjack.

Now, with the iPhone app, the risk increases -- you're not just risking your money, you're risking arrest.