Re: Double betting and money laundering

[pcw@access.digex.net (Peter Wayner)]

>Peter Wayner wrote:
> 
>>Apparently, casinos are now on the lookout for people who 
>>are teaming up to play both halves of a bet. One casino 
>>kicked out two guys who apparently were betting on pass
>>and don't pass on the craps table. Why were they bothering?
>>Was it laundering? Nope. It turns out that casinos hand
>>out free "comps" based on the amount of betting that you
>>do. This is called being "rated." They notice that you're
>>betting $10 chips and figure that the math shows that you'll
>>probably lose x dollars per hour. Then they give you free
>>room and food to show their appreciation. 
> 
>Forgive me, but I am skeptical. I worked for a short while as a licensed
>craps dealer in NJ about 10 years ago. There is no combination of bets
>on a craps table that will cancell out the house advantage. When I delt,
>the house welcomed any combination of bets any player wanted to make, let
>alone worrying about what some confederate on the same table might do.
> 

Yes, there is no combination that will cancel out the house odds.
I'm guessing that the two craps players hoped that their small losses
would be less than the cost of the hotel room that they would win
by being comped. 

The story just reported that the casino kicked out two people who 
were engaged in this after one demanded to be comped. The article
mentioned that casinos seemed to want to comp people at 30% of their
expected losses. 

I'm sort of skeptical of this working out because the expected losses
of two players mirroring their bets with an odd/even strategy on the
roulette wheel is twice the expected losses of one person just betting
straight odd. But who says that gamblers know everything?

-Peter