iPhone Card Counter banned from Nevada Casinos

Media sources have recently been intensely preoccupied with covering the use of an iPhone card-counting application in casinos.

Card counting is a system used to lower the casino advantage over the player. This counting system keeps track of the percentage of high to low cards since the last time the deck was shuffled, and helps notify the player when he should make bigger or smaller bets (Gambling Dictionary and Online Casino Terms). The movie "21" shows that casinos hate card counters because counters can beat the house and take all of the money.

According to CBS13 News, "card counting itself is not illegal under Nevada gambling laws, but it is considered a felony to use devices to help count cards."

This makes the the news coverage of the iPhone card-counting application important because Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPod Touch card-counting program illegally helps players beat the house in blackjack (ABC News).

Richard Abowitz, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, said this application could make someone like him, a non-gambler, as good as the best counter in Vegas.

A person who wrote a review for the $2.99 iPhone application created by TMSOFT said it made him $50k in Vegas.

Another reviewer wrote, “I just got back from Vegas and won 8G’s and took my family on a great vacation. Three bucks is worth a thousand” (Deleon).

Randall Sayre, a board member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, informed casino authorities about one of the card-counting application's features called "Stealth Mode," which shuts off the iPhone screen. Stealth mode makes the phone appear to be turned off, while the user can still continue to track cards by pressing the screen at the spots where the keys would normally show. The phone vibrates when the player should make a bet (Kelzer).

Casinos all over Nevada have been warned about the iPhone's card-counting application, and Harrah's Entertainment banned the iPhone at the World Series of Poker (Sadun).

The iPhone not only raises the risk in losing money, but also raises the risk in being arrested. Device-assisted card counting is a felony that can earn you one to six years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both (Myslewski).

I think the amount of news coverage for this new card-counting event is reasonable because Nevada has claimed it a felony. A lot of people have iPhones today, so casinos are more at risk of losing money.

Nicholas Deleon, a writer for MobileCrunch.com, did a good job at stating that this card-counting scare comes at a bad time. "Las Vegas is being battered by the recession: no one has any money anymore-- come stimulus," Deleon wrote.

The stories from the Associated Press that were used by media sources, such as ABC News, Yahoo! News, and CBS13 News, were objective, yet short and boring. They were good summaries, but were not as interesting as other articles from newspapers and technology. The AP articles showed how quotes from people add flavor to stories.

The article from the LA Times was more opinionated and written more like an editorial, but it was a lot more interesting to read.

The Ars Technica story by Erica Sadun was extremely informative. I like the way Sadun included the gambling laws of other states, such as New Jersey, in comparison to those of Las Vegas. She wrote that Atlantic City casinos could not bar skilled players, but in Las Vegas, they can bully, harass, and back of customers.

The Ars Technica story was also one out of only two stories that included information about the card-counting application's stealth mode. Gregg Kelzer's story from Computer World was the other one.

Sadun, Kelzer, and Myslewski's articles stated good figures that described how much the iPhone application costs. I thought it was also good that they included where someone could purchase the application.

Reading the reactions from bloggers and newspaper reviewers about the topic were quite entertaining. There were a lot of mixed reviews for the application and news articles. A lot of the reviews seemed more in support of using the application in casinos. After reading the articles, people seemed more interested in going to casinos and trying out the card-counting application themselves.

I think the news articles not only warned casinos about the card-counting scare, but also encouraged more people to try the application.

I'm interested in downloading the application, myself.

References:

(2005). Gambling Dictionary and Online Casino Terms. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from Online Casino Prosper Web site: http://www.online-casino-prosper.com/gamblingdictionary.html

(2009). Card Counter. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from TMSOFT Web site: http://www.tmsoft.com/iphone-cardcounter.html

(2009, February 15). iPhone Card-Counting App Has Casinos On Alert. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from CBS13.com Web site: http://cbs13.com/business/blackjack.iphone.app.2.935915.html

(2009, February 16). Casinos are warned about card-counting iPhone app. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from Yahoo! Tech Web site: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090216/ap_on_hi_te/card_counting_iphones

(2009, February 16). Casinos are warned about card-counting iPhone app. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from ABC News Web site: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/wireStory?id=6886789

(2009, February 16). iPhone Card Counting. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from CNN Video Web site: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2009/02/16/tsr.tatton.iphone.card.counting.cnn

Abowiz, Richard (2009, February 16). Blackjack: Cheating with an iPhone. Los Angeles Times, p. C2.

Deleon, Nicholas (2009 February 16). iPhone card counting app comes under Las Vegas scrutiny. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from Mobile Crunch Web site: http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/02/16/iphone-card-counting-app-comes-under-las-vegas-scrutiny/

Kelzer, Gregg (2009, February 17). Nevada tips casinos to iPhone card-counting app. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from ComputerWorld Web site: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9128094&intsrc=news_ts_head

Myslewski, Rik (2009, February 17). US gambling capital bans iPhone card counter. Retrieved February 17, 2009, from The Register Web site: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/17/iphone_card_counter/

Sadun, Erica (2009, February 16). Casino regulators issue alert over iPhone card-counting app. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from Ars Technica Web site: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/02/casino-operators-issue-warning-over-iphone-card-counting-app.ars

Terdiman, Daniel (2009, February 17). Casinos on lookout for iPhone card-counting app. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from CNET News Web site: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10165861-235.html

Timothy (2009, February 17). Casinos Warn iPhone Card-Counting App is Illegal . Retrieved February 18, 2009, from Slashdot Web site: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/17/1547233&from=rss