The gambling industry is usually enjoying great success thanks to the numerous recreational players who simply enjoy the act of risking money and testing their luck on various games. If you have invested some time into researching the way this sector is working, you most probably have learnt that the casino always wins in the grand scheme of things.
The reason why the house is always the big long-term winner is the advantage the casino has over players. This advantage is achieved by reducing payouts or changing certain rules of casino games. As casinos tend to always win in the long run, players have always been curious about developing strategies to gain back some advantage and even tilt the balance in their favour.
While some casino games are simply based on luck and there is not much you can do to affect the outcome, other options also involve some decision-making. Going for the optimal moves in such games can significantly affect your winning chances in the long run.
One popular strategy developed mainly by blackjack players has been card counting. However, this system has proven to be very successful which made it forbidden in many brick-and-mortar casinos. While there is a risk of being kicked out of almost any casino if you are caught counting cards, there are still many players who attempt to implement this type of strategy while playing blackjack.
As it may take a while before the casino staff notices card counters, casinos have taken additional measures to prevent such practices. One tool that makes card counting very difficult is the continuous shuffling machine (CSM). As this device makes card counting very difficult, many players are in search of ways to beat these machines.
How Casinos Use CSM to Prevent Card Counting
As you probably know, card counting requires players to keep a count of the cards that remain in the deck. However, as casinos are well aware of this strategy, they have added several decks to the game, making the player’s task to count the cards in the shoe a bit more difficult. That said, card counters have developed an improved system that can still be very effective, even when the game uses a shoe with several decks of cards.
While the multiple decks have not been a huge obstacle for professional card counters, if cards are continuously shuffled, keeping a track of what remains in the shoe gets quite difficult to do. Since dealers cannot continuously reshuffle the decks and deal cards at the same time, casinos have implemented CSMs on their blackjack tables.
The CSM is a device that shuffles the cards in the shoe so the dealer can conduct the game without having to stop after every deal of cards. If you join a blackjack table that uses a CSM, you will notice that the dealer draws the cards from the said device. Once cards are played, the dealer then places them into a discard tray. Once about a single deck of the shoe has been dealt in the game, the dealer grabs the cards from the discard tray and returns them to the CSM.
The device has little slots inside of it where cards will be placed into these slots, ensuring a randomised shuffle of all cards. Once the CSM is done with shuffling, these cards are placed on the top of the shoe. All of that happens while the dealer continues to handle cards and carry on with the game against players at the table.
In addition to making card counting difficult, CSMs also boost the play rate by 20% as the dealer does not pause the game to shuffle cards. That allows the casino to enjoy bigger profits from recreational blackjack players as well.
How CSMs Ruin Card Counting for Blackjack Players
One of the key factors that ensure successful card counting is deck penetration. However, to achieve deck penetration, you will need most of the shoe to be dealt in the game. With CSMs, you will have a quarter of the shoe discarded at best, with three-fourths of the cards still remaining in the shoe when it is reshuffled by the device.
There are still casinos that will use hand shuffling and have the dealer to shuffle the cards once the cut card is reached in the shoe. It is possible that casinos may also use a random shuffle machine that will also automatically shuffle the cards once a bigger portion of the shoes has been discarded. However, such methods of shuffling give card counters a huge advantage as they can achieve a rather good deck penetration and gather enough information about the remaining cards.
In addition to making card counting much easier, hand shuffling also causes the dealer to pause the game, ultimately affecting the number of hands that are played. However, if the shoe is automatically shuffled by the CSM, the dealer is not required to stop the game, with more hands in play guaranteeing the casino more long-term wins.
Can Card Counters Beat CSMs While Playing Blackjack
There have been many obstacles that were trying to stop blackjack players from using card counting. However, advantage players have discovered ways to overcome these barriers. That is why many blackjack fans are looking for ways to beat CSMs and still gain enough advantage over the house. Unfortunately, as the use of these devices does not offer good deck penetration, it is not possible to gain enough advantage by card counting.
Let us assume that a quarter of the shoe has been dealt and you are running a positive count, you cannot risk drastically increasing your stake when there are still many decks remaining in the shoe. To be able to boost your bet size, you will need to achieve deck penetration of at least 75%. As mentioned earlier, such a rate is impossible to achieve with a CSM used in the game.
You may come across a different card counting system online, suggesting that you can still gain an advantage even when the blackjack table uses a CSM. According to this model, you should allow a buffer of about 16 cards in the shoe. If the dealer does not return the discarded cards to the CSM, you simply do a running count on the last 16 cards that have been returned to the shuffling device.
The aforementioned system recommends using a standard hi-lo count where cards between 2 and 6 are given a value of +1, while 10 through Ace are counted as -1. If the dealer decides to grab a large number of discarded cards and return them to the CSM, you should use the count of the entire deck of discarded cards.
Let us assume the above system of counting is used in a blackjack variation with six decks and a CSM. The rules of the game are also suitable, with blackjack paying 3 to 2, possible late surrender, resplitting of Aces up to three times, and doubling after a split allowed. Using a blackjack analysing tool, it can be concluded that the best EV (expected value) for the said game is at -0.445%. If the 16-card window is considered during card counting, it is concluded that when the window count exceeds 5, the following hand from the CSM has a positive EV. The window count is equal to or higher than 5 in about 8.2% of the gaming time.
The frequency of 16-card window counts in the example above can be seen in the table below:
| Running window count | Frequency | Approximate EV |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 11.50% | -0.44% |
| 1 | 10.80% | -0.34% |
| 2 | 9.36% | -0.24% |
| 3 | 7.46% | -0.16% |
| 4 | 5.46% | -0.05% |
| 5 | 3.67% | 0.04% |
| 6 | 2.25% | 0.14% |
| 7 | 1.25% | 0.22% |
| 8 | 0.63% | 0.29% |
| 9 | 0.28% | 0.43% |
| 10 | 0.11% | 0.49% |
You can indeed beat the game against a CSM if you use the card counting system above. But the counts that you get are never too high as you will get at most a deck worth of cards played before they are returned to the shuffling machine. Even when you get higher counts, they are not as frequent.
Just to show you how insignificant the EV will be when trying to beat a CSM using the recommended card counting system, we can take the same bet spread on a regular six-deck blackjack where four and a half decks are dealt before the shoe is shuffled. In that case, the bet spread of £5 to £500 will be worth about £150 an hour. As you can see, it is simply not worth it to use card counting in games that utilise CSMs as the EV is just way too small.
Can CSMs Turn Blackjack Players off Card Counting
One thing is for sure, card counters will try to avoid CSMs at all costs as this device makes the skill of card counting almost useless. Moreover, casual players also avoid tables with CSMs as the use of such a device would indicate more hands in play, ultimately causing some players to go through their budgets faster. While the use of CSMs does not affect the house edge, players might feel as if they are losing more on such games when in fact they are simply playing more hands than what they would usually do.
Many casinos would like to use CSMs on their blackjack tables to force advantage players to give up on counting cards. However, if all blackjack options are using CSMs, this would significantly affect the interest in the game, which can decrease participation in the game.
While it is still possible to gain some advantage while counting cards on a blackjack variation with a CSM, many players will simply avoid such variants of the card game. Unfortunately, while casinos can effectively stop blackjack experts from counting cards, the use of this type of machine can also scare off many recreational players. That is why there are still plenty of brick-and-mortar casinos that still rely on hand shuffling or random shuffling machines.
As of now, card counting is still a very common technique used by blackjack players worldwide. While it can be prevented with CSMs, not every casino is willing to use such a device. That is why it can be concluded that while CSMs can lower the attempts of card counting, this technique is far from going extinct.
Are CSMs Widely Used by Brick-and-Mortar Casinos
As the implementation of CSMs can bring casinos bigger profits, many land-based gambling facilities are using CSMs for all of their card games. This type of device can be seen on almost any casino floor in Macau, with Monte Carlo also being the second biggest casino hub to implement CSMs on most table games.
Despite being some of the biggest casino hotspots in the world, Macau and Monte Carlo are definitely not among the favourite destinations of card counters. Meanwhile, CSMs are not that popular at casinos located in other gambling hubs across the world.
You may see many of the casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno, Laughlin, or some European countries utilising hand shuffling carried out by the dealers at the tables. These spots are definitely perfect for card counters who are willing to take the risk and try to use this strategy while playing blackjack.
Even though CSMs are not implemented at every land-based casino around the globe, you should also consider that not all tables will use hand shuffling. This is especially true in cases of tables with lower bet limits.
Closing Thoughts
With players constantly trying to gain an advantage over the casino, some gaming enthusiasts have come up with strategies like card counting. Proven to be very successful, card counting is one of the main skills many blackjack players are trying to acquire. As the card counting system is very effective, however, casinos are constantly looking for ways to prevent this type of advantage play.
In addition to taking various preventative measures, some land-based casinos have introduced continuous shuffling machines. This type of device allows regular shuffling of the cards in the shoe, enabling the dealer to continue handling cards while the rest of the shoe is automatically reshuffled. Since CSMs allow very small deck penetration, card counting becomes very ineffective, giving players a very small edge.
Even though there is still a way to beat CSMs by card counting, those who resort to this method will most likely avoid blackjack tables using this type of device. Even if you beat a CSM, the EV is so low that it is not worth the time you will waste counting cards and risking being kicked out of the casino.
