Do Live Dealer Casinos Cheat at Blackjack?

Live dealer blackjack has become one of the most popular ways to play this game. It lets you to enjoy brick and mortar-style blackjack from the comforts of your own home.

Assuming you can’t make it to a land-based casino, then live blackjack is the next best thing. However, it can also raise concerns about the dealer cheating.

The concept of blackjack dealers cheating is not new. In fact, one live dealer studio was actually caught ripping players off!

You don’t typically need to worry about blackjack dealers cheating in live dealer or land-based casinos. After all, many gaming establishments already make solid profits and these casinos have no need to cheat.

Nevertheless, a casino could use one of several methods to con you if they felt like doing so. Here are the main ways that live dealer casinos can cheat.

Second Dealing Cards

A dealer is supposed to pull the top card off a deck/shoe. With second dealing, however, they’ll draw the second card from the top.

Meanwhile, they keep a choice card on top. These crooked croupiers keep second dealing until getting back to themselves. At this point, they’ll finally give themselves the top card.

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Removing High Cards From the Shoe

High cards (A-10) improve your probabilities of getting a natural blackjack (21 on first two cards). They also increase the odds that the dealer will bust out. After all, the croupier must hit until drawing a 17 or higher.

Stacking the Deck or Shoe

In contrast to the method covered above, casinos can always add more low cards (2-6). Additional low cards serve the following two purposes:

• Reduce your possibilities of getting a natural blackjack
• Improve the dealer’s odds of not busting out

This is another situation where the casino could successfully cheat without you even realizing it. They simply need to add a few extra low cards and benefit over time.

Using Sleight of Hand

Sleight of hand refers to several skill-based tricks that dealers can use. For example, they could quickly pull a card out of their sleeve.

The aforementioned second dealing is another example. In this case, the dealer tries to grab the second card off the top without anybody seeing.

These tricks require a great deal of skill on the croupier’s part. They must be able to pull off sleight of hand with all eyes on them.

There’s Only One Known Case of Live Dealer Cheating

Live dealer blackjack cheating is achievable. Luckily, though, you’ll almost assuredly avoid any such problems.

The GGL incident in 2017 is a rare case of cheating. Beyond this story, though, no other high-profile live casino cheating incidents exist to date.

But just in case you’re still concerned, you can take a few precautions to protect yourself. Live casino reviews, reading gaming news, and closely watching the blackjack action can all pay dividends.

Again, though, you shouldn’t need to worry about being cheated. Live dealer casinos and studios have too much to lose by cheating customers.

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