Interview with Bill Zender

When I first started dealing cards I became very bored with the process very quickly, however I was interested in other aspects of blackjack and the casino industry. Back in the 70's the topic of card counting was paramount in the casino. Several casino employees who I associated with were into counting and playing. I can give credit to several, including Steve Forte, for providing me with information about counting, advantage play, bankroll requirements, etc. I also became interested in different forms of cheating because it seemed like no one in the gaming industry I had met know much about the subject. I still remember being told that card counting was cheating and if I was caught counting cards in another casino I would lose my job and probably get arrested. I learned later that was false.

Most people can learn how to count down a deck of cards, recall basic strategy, apply index number play deviations, and devise a usable betting strategy through many hours of practice. Some quicker then others. However, if the player is not thoroughly prepared to accept the fact that several weeks of profits can be whisked away in one day from bad cards and bad luck, and understand that this situation is a normal characteristic of card counting and gambling in general, then he shouldn't attempt to play for a living with serious money.

My next greatest memory occurred as VP at the Aladdin hotel and casino in the 90's. Once I was in charge of the live games I made some very radical changes, particularly blackjack. We dealt out all but twenty-six cards from both the six deck shoe and the double deck games, added surrender and double after splitting, and simplified the shuffling process to increase games speed and number of hands dealt. I was told by different executives in the business that I was asking for trouble, and even the blackjack players that applauded the looser games felt I would be changing the rules back to the more standard approach after a month or two. During the next five years the Aladdin had some of the highest win percentage of all the Strip properties.

My worst blackjack memory had to be getting kicked out of Jerry's Nugget in North Las Vegas for shuffle tracking. It was the only time I was barred. The casino manager put me and two other players out of the casino personally. It wasn't a pretty scene. Several years later while I was the casino manager at the Maxim Hotel/casino I had the chance to reciprocate when I barred him for counting cards.

Several years ago I taught a girlfriend how to count and had her learn Snyder's unbalanced Red Seven count system. It was easy and required no conversion and simple strategy variations. If I were to teach someone to play today I would lean towards the KO count system. It's similar to the Red Seven but is slightly stronger and more flexible for different blackjack game types.

To estimate my bankroll requirements I use a variation of Kelly Criteria. I take my estimated advantage and divide it into 100. I then take the product and times it by my average bet and then again by my largest bet. This gives me an idea what size of bankroll I'll need. I still use the same formula when banking pai gow and pai gow poker, and I once used it in the casino business to determine my maximum table limit.

In 1979 I joined the Nevada Gaming Control Board as an agent with their Enforcement Division. During my period with the board I learn quite a lot about card, dice, and slot cheating, as well as internal thefts and major scams. I also got involved in giving game protection seminars for many of the law enforcement agency in Nevada and throughout the western United States. At one point I was assigned to survey all the casinos in the rural areas of Nevada and to make sure they weren't taking unfair advantage of the public. In doing so I prepared myself by going over the files of all cow county casinos from the period starting in the 1960's through 1979. In those files I read about the different casinos that had been closed over the years for cheating the customers, what the investigations had found, and what the Gaming Board had done to prevent it from happening again. I also got to inspect and analysis numerous cheating device that had been seized from both casinos and cheater. The education I receive from my time with the NGCB was invaluable.

In the past several years I have given various seminars on game protection throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia, to casinos, gaming expos, and law enforcement agencies.

There are actually two more elements needed to by a professional cheat. These elements are nerve and a lack of conscience. Fortunately, I lack the prior while I strongly possess the latter.

The most common cheating practices in the casino are the simple acts; i.e., putting more money out on winning bets before their paid, taking money back from known losing bets, stealing chips from other players at the table, etc. The more sophisticated the cheating move the more uncommon it will be and the less likely it will be to discover. However, the majority of people that enter the casino are not there to steal or cheat, they're in your casino to gamble and be entertained. After every game protection seminar I always finish the class be say that 99.9% of all casino customers are our friends, but it's that 0.1% we need to identify and neutralize.

Several years ago a group of players used a false shuffle scam in mini baccarat to take off three Las Vegas casinos for over $700,000. This group was later identified on video tape committing the scam, arrested and convicted in Federal Court in Las Vegas. This scam has also been seen in other gambling states throughout the United States, including the countries of Canada and Australia.