Few gadgets are as ubiquitous on the casino floor as the card shuffler.
The rectangular box looks simple enough, but its low table profile belies an inner core that’s been patented and has the potential of not only shuffling, but also sorting multiple decks.
You don’t have to tour many casinos before determining Scientific Games, the Shuffle Master folks, dominate the market.
The shufflers have passed inspection by multiple gaming regulatory boards and commissions, but they still generate a steady stream of worries, rumors and legends. Gambler comment boards are riddled with everything from rank speculation to genuine curiosity about the engineering design and propriety of the shufflers.
In fact, I regularly receive contacts from players and at least one dealer who swear those shufflers are out to get them and are capable of not only sort and reading cards but arranging outcomes that favor the house.
One example from an Internet comment: “Here is how I feel about shufflers, every shuffler which shuffles the cards in blackjack & poker are made by same company they are programmed & machine is rigged to make fixed hands.”
I’m inclined to disagree, but I grew up in Las Vegas back when carney games were common place. If you’ve never bet a chicken in Tic-Tac-Toe, pal, you haven’t lived.
As it turns out, the closer you get to expert opinions on the subject, the less likely you’ll find conspiracies about the machines. In a post on Oct. 21 in the widely read and respected Anthony Curtis’ Las Vegas Advisor, gaming expert Arnold Snyder replied with skepticism.
First, he said, programming a shuffler to distribute certain cards or hands would be illegal. By law, there is no “set percentage” payout, Snyder said. The shuffling is random.
He did, however, allow that not all jurisdictions are as rigorously regulated as Nevada and New Jersey, so it’s possible some machines in some clubs might be tilted against the player.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if jurisdictions that allowed these scam machines also allowed other types of rigged equipment,” Snyder said. But for a shuffler to consistently cheat players “would be a true marvel of programming and engineering, at least for a game like blackjack where players make their own decisions on how to play hands, the number of players at the table can change at any time, and the number of hands any individual player has in action can change according to player whim.”
Officially, the card reading function on the shuffler is designed to prevent players or dealers from slipping cards into the deck.
Looking at it another way, Snyder observed, “A card order that might work for three hands in play would be useless if a player exited the game after the deal hand begun. A single player misplaying a hand could wreck the order of delivery.”
And a gaffed machine? It would fail to perform.
Headquartered in Las Vegas, Scientific Games is one of the casino industry’s more intriguing companies. With a worldwide reach, it provides devices for the casino floor and the lottery kiosk and figures to play a substantial role if, as anticipated, the prohibition on sports betting outside Nevada is lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Scientific Games is an industry leader, but it’s not without its critics. To wit: the federal litigation by comparatively diminutive Shuffle Tech against Scientific Games in the Northern District of Illinois. In April 2015, Shuffle Tech filed a $100 million lawsuit against Scientific Games Corp., alleging its subsidiary, SHFL Entertainment, of conspiring to use its patents for an automatic card shuffling device to create an illegal monopoly in the market. Two patents in question were held by Shuffle Tech for “Deckmate 1,” a shuffler and retrieval device.
A federal judge dismissed most of the allegations, but in September Scientific Games’ motion for summary judgment was denied, Cookcountyrecord.com reported. Shuffle Tech’s claim that Shuffle Master has been perpetrated a fraud to control the card shuffler market could go forward to trial.
With single and multi-deck shufflers, “intelligent shoes,” and continuous shufflers, some containing computers and costing many thousands of dollars, you can’t really blame players for their confusion or for feeling leery about the flow of the cards.
But for the record, the gaming industry’s regulated rectangles are on the square.
Of course, you don’t have to believe that if you don’t want to.
Contact John L. Smith at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith
