Four Casinos Heavily Fined in New Jersey
January 28th, 2011 by OBO-admin
The casinos in New Jersey appear to be having a bad time with casino inspectors and are being heavily fined for having failed to meet the security standards required. So far, four prominent blackjack casinos in Atlantic City have been penalized by New Jersey authorities to the tune of $115,000. Three of the casinos were pulled up for permitting underage gaming, while the fourth was fined on account of a blackjack scam.
Tropicana Casino and Resort
The Tropicana Casino had to cough up a big fine because it did not manage its blackjack tables appropriately and failed to spot a blackjack dealer scam. The dealer had teamed up with a blackjack player and stole $21,500 over a course of 21 weeks. The casino was fined $40,000.
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino
The reputed Trump Plaza Casino was also subject to fines of $20,000 by New Jersey authorities for allowing a 19 year old to consume alcohol and play blackjack without checking his identification. The teenager ordered many drinks and even used a card counting system.
Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort
Yet another Trump Casino was fined, when a 20 year old girl was found playing at the Trump Taj Mahal. The player was heavily intoxicated and had been at the blackjack tables for hours. The casino was fined $20,000.
Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort
This casino had to spill a $15,000 when a 20 year old was spotted at the blackjack tables. Fortunately for Atlantic City Hilton, this player was caught within 45 minutes.
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Bellagio Drops $25K Blackjack Chips In Order to Catch Thief
January 21st, 2011 by OBO-admin
After the recent robbery that occurred at the reputed Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where a bandit held up a table at gunpoint and walked away with several blackjack chips in the $25,000 denomination, the casino has decided to do away with the high value chips completely. This is part of the strategy to apprehend the robber who took $1,500,000 worth of chips in denominations ranging from $100 to $25,000.
In order to profit from the chips, the bandit will have to cash them in at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The Bellagio casino switched chips within an hour of the robbery, so that the stolen chips could not be exchanged, and are now issuing a new series of casino chips. This means that anyone who comes to exchange $25,000 chips will be required to undergo questioning. However, for those players who still have the old series of chips, they have until the 22nd of April to redeem them.
Alan Feldman, a spokesperson for MGM Resorts appeared to be satisfied with this new plan. “Obviously, anyone walking with one of the old series is going to be subject to a certain amount of questioning as to how they obtained them — assuming it isn’t someone we know. It’s pretty unusual for someone we don’t know to come strolling up with a handful of $25,000 chips,” he said.
Posted in Blackjack News |
888 Casino Launches Live Blackjack Specials on Sundays
January 18th, 2011 by OBO-admin
Blackjack players who like playing live games can now frequent the 888 casino which has launched a special promotion for its live online blackjack games. This is one of the most unique blackjack promotions on the market today and allows players to try live games regularly. This is a weekly blackjack offer run every Sunday by the 888 Casino. Players at the 888 Casino will also be given the opportunity to win a £500 bonus for playing blackjack. The game will commence at 6 pm every Sunday and continue on for two hours until its ends at 8 pm.
Live blackjack is in itself an exciting game, as it brings with it the thrills and the fast-paced action that is present at an actual blackjack table game in Las Vegas. Players looking to be part of the two hour live blackjack event set to occur every Sunday at the 888 Casino must first be registered players with the site. Players who participate in it will find that special bonus cards worth £25 each will be added to the decks and get dealt as usual. Players win money according to the amount of bonus cards that they collect. The more bonus cards you get dealt, the more money you get to win. Players must also note that the bonus card will be dealt out in the denomination of currency that you are playing with.
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New Jersey To Legalize Online Blackjack
January 12th, 2011 by OBO-admin
Blackjack players in the United States have been despairing about means to access legally permissible online blackjack games ever since the UIGEA gaming laws were instituted. However for the blackjack players in the state of New Jersey, the situation appears to be taking a turn for the better as the region’s authorities are taking steps to legalize online blackjack.
Currently, both the Republican and Democratic parties are working with the Senate and have passed a bill that permits games like blackjack and poker to be played online. Players will be overjoyed to know that the vote to legalize online blackjack and other casino games in the state of New Jersey had the approval of the majority and the Senate passed with the vote of 32 in favor versus 2 votes against. The new bill will permit online casinos in New Jersey residents to play blackjack online for real money.
New Jersey is the first state in the USA to take this step, and it is expected that others will follow this example.
The Assembly also voted in favour of the bill and is now awaiting its signing for it to go into effect. Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey will have to sign off on this bill for it to be implemented. The community expects no obstacles from the governor who is known to be a supporter of the cause.
Posted in Blackjack News |
Blackjack Cheating Dealer Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison
January 6th, 2011 by OBO-admin
Mike Waseleski, one of the six defendants charged for cheating at the blackjack tables and winning around $800,000 back in 2009, has been proved to have illegally assisted Tran Organization to win $1.5k at the blackjack tables of Resorts East Chicago Casino. He has been sentenced to $250,000 fine and 5 years imprisonment.
According to the trial records at the court, the arrested belonged to Tran Organization that was formed in 2002 in California. They trained blackjack dealers to pretend to be shuffling cards at blackjack and mini baccarat games. The act of pretend shuffling enabled them to memorize the order of the cards. The members of the casinos would specially request the dealers not to shuffle the cards and use this knowledge while wagering. Allegedly, Waseleski took such a training course at Houston, Texas.
The US department of justice says that the cheats also used secret software and hardware to win thousands of dollars at a time. The gang cheated at the blackjack tables of around 27 casinos.
In March 2009, Phuong Quoc Truong, who belonged to the Tran Organization, was sentenced to 6 years federal imprisonment after making illicit wins worth $868,000 in just 90 minutes at the Resorts East Chicago Casino.
Posted in Blackjack News |
Blackjack Player Robin Hood Offers 50K Bounty for Bellagio Gunman
December 26th, 2010 by OBO-admin
The noted blackjack player, who uses the handle “Robin Hood 702” and is known for his charitable work, recently put a bounty on the head of the armed culprit who robbed the Bellagio casino of a million and a half dollars. The bounty is worth $50,000 and is given upon the arrest of the gunman.
Robin Hood hopes that the bounty will spur people to help get the culprit apprehended and tried in a court of law. The masked and armed gunman hit two blackjack casinos, of which the Bellagio was the last to be targeted. The gunman was said to be riding a motorcycle and wearing a helmet to hide his identity. He walked in to the casino, held up a croupier and rode away with the loot.
Robin Hood 702 hopes that the Bellagio incident will be the last of the robberies and expects that the bounty will help get him caught. “I’m just trying to find this guy and stop any copycats. If the Bellagio was hit, the Palazzo could be hit, the Venetian, the MGM Grand, it could be every casino. This guy has to be apprehended quickly…. Fifty grand is a lot for someone to have in their pocket. I’m hoping other casinos will kind of add to the bounty and make this an incredible thing,” the player said.
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Vegas Casinos on the Lookout for Blackjack Card Counting App Users
December 20th, 2010 by OBO-admin
While blackjack players are looking to get their hands on blackjack applications that allow them to count cards and win at the game, the Vegas casinos are on the hunt to spot blackjack card counting apps used by players.
Reports claim that the Vegas casinos are focusing on the iPhone blackjack card counting application and are looking to spot blackjack cheaters using it. A California casino recently apprehended players using the latest iPhone blackjack app to count cards at tables in an attempt to win.
After this, casinos in Vegas were put on the alert and the Nevada Gaming Control Board went a step further and sent out warnings to several prominent casinos in Las Vegas advising them to be on guard about players using the app. The exact specific details of this app have not been divulged for security purposes.
Players who may be unaware of the laws in Las Vegas in regard to card counting at the blackjack table must take note that although the region does permit card counting, it outlaws the use of a device to help the player count cards. Furthermore, this will be considered a felony. However, most casinos do frown on card counting in general and try to get rid of such players.
Posted in Blackjack News |
105 Year Old Says Playing Blackjack Kept Her Young
December 15th, 2010 by OBO-admin
The game of blackjack has come to mean many things to different people, but for Annie Asaro, a 105 year old woman, it has come to symbolize the secret to a long life. Annie Asaro is a very happy and cheerful woman at her age and spends a lot of her time at the casino playing blackjack. When asked what her secret to long life was, she answered “Just play blackjack.”
Asaro was born in the year 1905 in the month of December, and has spent 88 years of her life living in Escondido. This blackjack player who has lived through the Great depression and many wars, can be found playing way to her hearts content at the blackjack tables at the Pala Casino.
Annie Asaro also plays slots games and likes to look for tournament games; she admitted to frequenting the Pala Casino and the Pauma Casino in the same vicinity. Both casinos held celebrations in her honor, and Asaro was even asked to cut a deck in honor of the occasion at one particular blackjack table. “I like to play blackjack,” she admitted and was noted to be playing the Super Fun Single Deck blackjack tables. Asaro appears to be very sharp for her age and has now closed 105 years of age.
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Blackjack Player Larry Evans Passes Away at 78
December 10th, 2010 by OBO-admin
Larry Evans, the reputed blackjack master player, passed away at the age of 78 during a gall bladder operation, much to the surprise of the blackjack community. Evans, who was also known for his skill at the game of chess, resided in Nevada and had to his credit the authorship of several books, a number of which discussed chess.
Although reputed for his success at the game of chess, Larry Evans was also a great blackjack player who learned how to play blackjack and quickly became an expert at counting cards. Evans great blackjack skills stemmed from his logical approach to the game and his mathematical abilities which he used in tandem to win at blackjack. Evans made a name for himself in the world of blackjack in 1968, long before card counting was considered to be popular and people were being instructed in it. Evans used his card counting abilities and calm logic to sort through game after game of blackjack and made a good amount of money. Evans was known to frequent the blackjack tables in the casinos at Reno where he worked at making some extra dollars.
His great logic and mathematical gaming mind made him excel in counting blackjack cards way back in 1968 before card counting came into fashion refining his memory and making some extra cash playing blackjack at Reno casinos. However, Evans was soon spotted by casino officials and was then banned from these tables in Reno.
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College Professor Uses Blackjack to Teach Statistics and Probability
December 9th, 2010 by OBO-admin
Mark Bollman, a mathematics professor at Albion College in Michigan, developed the innovative method of using blackjack to teach his students statistics and probabilities, several years back. His students studied the various factors that make profits for casinos, including house edge, and practiced blackjack strategies with the help of software and in laboratories. Later, the professor modified the course to make it more practical and introduced it into the Mount Pleasant based Soaring Eagle Casino, which permits 18 year olds to gamble.
Explaining the difference between a classroom and the gambling atmosphere in a casino, Bollman said that one cannot recreate the experience of loss or gain in a classroom, where one plays for practice without any risk. His students need not necessarily take risks or gamble, yet they have gladly played for real money, losing a maximum of $130 and winning a maximum of $400.
Speaking about his experiences, Andy Livernoise who won $110 said that the casino sounds, lights, and crowds added up to be quite an experience, but he had the knowledge that slots have a high house edge unlike blackjack, which has a low house edge. Jennifer Polinski, who won just $3, said that most winnings come from playing blackjack.
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