I know many of you on this board are also BJ players, so I thought
this may be of interest.....
Cut/pasted from a reputable source from Stanford Wong's BJ21.com
Green chip message board. If anyone witnesses this at SS, be sure to
object to this procedure.
"Sunset Station no longer delivers new, sealed boxes of cards to the
table when changing cards.
The procedure now is that a floorperson delivers the cards in a clear
plastic box (not the card manufacturer's box), and hands them to the
dealer, who riffles once, and deals. No longer are the cards spread
on the layout for the dealer and players to examine.
The dealer claimed to know nothing, other than "this is the way they
tell us to do it now." I asked a suit, who told me that the new cards
are now opened in the "card and dice control room," where they are
examined and shuffled, then placed in the clear plastic box that they
supposedly remain in until delivery to a table. He said this
procedure has existed for "a couple of months."
While I am not overly concerned about short-decking being a Station
policy, it certainly would now be a simple matter for a rogue
employee to remove some cards from the packs, now that there is no
public, or even dealer, scrutiny of the process. It's surprising to
me that the dealers tolerate this practice, though most may not
realize or care about the potential ramifications of being caught
with a short deck at their table.
The suit admitted to me that "some" players had told him they would
no longer play at Sunset Station because of this sneaky practice, but
that overall there had been "very few" comments from players. The
ploppies at the table when I observed the procedure were oblivious to
it. It appears that management has made a decision that speeding up
the games by not having down time at the table is more beneficial to
them than keeping the players who are astute enough to notice and be
suspicious of this procedure.
A shame that the Gaming Control Board allows this type of
skullduggery, but no surprise, given the "see no evil, hear no evil"
attitude of the casino lackeys on the Control Board.
I imagine that this nefarious practice will soon spread to all
Station properties, if it hasn't already."
Sunset Station's response to email inquiry :
Response from Sunset Station:
Dear XXXX,
Thank you for taking the time to give your opinion on the new card
system.
I am pleased to read the Floorsupervisor gave you a detailed account
of the process although he/she forgot to mention that the process is
completely monitored and handled only be certain members of the
management Team. Also on the request of any Guest the cards will be
spread and shuffled before play begins.
This system is used in a number of the large strip properties as well
as large casinos all over the world and is only one system of many
that are being implemented throughout the industry today.
Your concerns are appreciated and hope you visit Sunset Station again
soon.
Cheryl Vetter
Director of Casino Operations
Sunset Station
Best of Las Vegas
98-99-00-01-02
547-7697 Office
Al Rogers of the BJ21.com website called Ms. Vetter yesterday. Here
is her response :
She stated that the floorpeople have been instructed to have the
dealer spread the cards upon request by a player, but that they will
NOT put them in order to verify full decks. Therefore, spreading them
is useless.
She seemed quite defensive about the practice, claiming that several
casinos have done this "for years." But when I asked her to specify
which casinos, she said she didn't know.
She correctly noted that "most players just want to play, and don't
care about any of this."
While I had her on the line, I asked her about the generally poor
penetration at Sunset Station games. She said she did not wish to
comment on that subject at all.