Nevada warns of card-counting app for iPhone
February 18, 2009
The Nevada Gaming Control Board has issue a warning
informing the state’s casinos of an application for the iPhone that facilitates
card counting in the game of blackjack, an activity that is illegal in Nevada.
The document, posted on the
board’s Web site, from board member Randall E. Sayre is addressed to
“ALL NONRESTRICTED LICENSEES AND INTERESTED PARTIES” and details that the
California Bureau of Gambling Control has received information from a Northern
California tribal casino of a card-counting program that can be utilized on the
Apple I-Phone or the Apple IPod touch portable music player.
According to the statement, the program, which can be
downloaded from the iTunes Web site, calculates the “True Count” and does it
significantly more accurately. The card-counting program uses a choice of four
card-counting strategies. For each strategy the user presses the button that
contains the face cards as they are drawn from the deck. Depending on the
strategy and on the value of the card the button will either add or subtract one
or two from the “Running Count.” The program can utilize the card-counting
methods Hi-Low, Hi-Op I, Hi-Op II and Omega II.
The program can also be used in “Stealth Mode,” which is
when the screen of the phone will remain shut off, and as long as the user
knows where the keys are located the program can be run effortlessly without
detection.
The Gaming Board warning concludes with a reminder that use
of this type of program or possession of a device with this type of program on
it (with the intent to use it), in a licensed gaming establishment, is a
violation of NRS 465.075, which covers use of device for
calculating probabilities.
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