Chip capping a crime that doesn’t pay

By Alan Vaughn

Back in November, a San Diego-based blackjack team made the news for winning over $7 million. Unlike blackjack players in the movies, this team will be forced to return their winnings, and several of the players will face jail time for their efforts. The FBI labeled them as one of the most elaborate card-cheating rings in recent history and as such they will be prosecuted by the casinos for defrauding them of millions of dollars.

Card cheating has existed for hundreds of years and ranges from things as simple as using dust or ash to mark the cards to techniques that require specialized computers and teams of people to relay the output. While most players would never consider a cheating scam as complicated as the one that the San Diego team used, the average player is often presented with simpler ways to cheat the game. One of the more popular cheating methods is called capping.

Chip capping (or skimming) is when a player bets one amount, and then adds or subtracts chips after the outcome of the hand has been determined. This action is most often carried out once the player is dealt a blackjack or after the dealer busts, but players are sometimes tempted to add chips before a double down or a split.

Skilled chip cappers can add a chip (or several) to their stack while the dealer is watching. Of course, if the capper is too aggressive and adds chips to all of their winning bets they will be caught very quickly, so many limit this technique to only a few times per hour. The house advantage can be overcome with only one or two caps per hour (depending on the betting level). The problem – for them – is that they will typically only get away with it for a short period of time.

Casino personnel are highly trained when it comes to detecting chip cappers. Have you ever wondered why the casino is so insistent that you put your high-denomination chips on the bottom of your stack? This is done so that chip capping is easier to track, and it encourages the dealers to scan the chips before dealing the cards so they can easily tell if chips have been added.

Many casinos will alert the police after only a few suspicious actions have been performed. At that point, a suspected capper will be waiting in jail while the casino takes the time to review the tape. Typically, dealers and surveillance personnel will be alerted to cheating activity when a player regularly covers his bet with his hand or when they player only seems to place big bets on hand values of 20 or 21.

Cheating at blackjack is a crime, and often the casino will contact the police without issuing a warning of any kind. I have only seen a handful of players attempt this action, and in my opinion it was usually done on impulse out of desperation for a win.

Skilled chip cappers train for hours to make sure that their motions are fluent. This time would be better spent learning a skill that doesn’t lead to jail.

- Alan Vaughn has played high stakes blackjack for several years in casinos all across the US. He recently moved to Denver where he teaches blackjack to players of all skill levels. For questions, comments, or information on lessons please email denver21school@yahoo.com.