I arrived early at the casino for a breakfast meeting and quickly grew bored of playing with the keys in my pocket. I hadn't played cards in years but nonetheless found myself sitting down at a blackjack table. It was only after a couple of (losing) hands that I noticed a small plaque on the table: "Blackjack Pays 6/5."
"Don't you think you should warn the players this is 6/5?" I asked as I picked up my remaining chips. "No," the pit boss stammered, fumbling with the plaque. He seemed embarrassed. "We think this sign should be enough."
But is it? Should that pit boss be ashamed to work for a house that pays 6/5?
"It's the biggest joke since the 'guess the number game' in National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation," one casino manager tells me. "The casinos are doing nothing but showing contempt for the players; this game not only cheapens the overall product, but also the property itself."
The single-deck game made Las Vegas what it is today, he said. "Blackjack [paying 3/2] is an established product and made the casinos tons of money," he continued. "The young, inexperienced people making gaming decisions don't realize that it wasn't 6/5 that built the megaresorts."
This isn't merely a matter of shuffling incomprehensible numbers around. Stanford Wong, author of Professional Blackjack, explains: "The math is easy. If the player gets paid 3/2 on a natural 21 on a $10 bet, the player gets paid $15. If the player gets paid 6/5 on a $10 bet, he gets paid only $12 for a natural 21. That is a difference of $3, which might not seem like much. During a normal-speed blackjack game, the player averages five naturals per hour, meaning the player is shorted 1.5 bets per hour. In the case of a $10 bettor, he is being shorted $15 per hour!"
Al Rogers of bj21.com took his complaint even further, going into more detail in his formal complaint to the Gaming Control Board. His letter read in part: "The casinos, of course, are taking advantage of the widely held belief among uneducated players that 'single deck is better for the player.' While the belief is true when comparing normal-pay blackjack games, the 6/5 short-pay version is horrendous for the player, with a house percentage of about 1.45 percent vs. 0.18 percent for a normal single-deck blackjack game."
It makes you wonder if casinos are familiar with NRS 463.0129, a gaming regulation that states, "The continued growth and success of gaming is dependent upon public confidence and trust that gaming is conducted honestly and competitively ..." The operative word here is "competitively."
Rather than establishing a long-term relationship with customers, some casino executives appear to be concentrating on the short-term fix to boost profits. One employee of a major property conceded that there were some customer complaints, but added play at the table didn't seem to decrease.
Dennis Neilander, chairman of the Gaming Control Board, said in a statement, "It has been determined that the 6/5 payoff does not require approval as a new game," saying that "... the payback percentage is still well within the Board guidelines and therefore will be permitted."
The acid test for Chairman Neilander: Would he sit down and play at a 6/5 table?
It is also clear that allowing 6/5 payouts opens the door for casinos to eventually have all 21 games go to 6/5. Numerous calls to the public relations departments of several major Strip properties offering 6/5 blackjacks weren't returned.
It seems the casinos are taking the lead from sports books, which not only chased away sharp players but for years have gotten away with telling customers, If you don't like it, go somewhere else. Well, many did, and if the casinos keep chasing players away with gimmicks like the 6/5, Las Vegas might eventually end up with a lot of empty blackjack tables. A cautionary note: The Gaming Control Board reported that in the last year, the casinos' blackjack win was down 4.2 percent, and its share of table game win decreased 2.8 percent
So, did that mumbling pit boss have good reason to lower his head in shame? That's for him to decide. I'm just grateful no one I knew noticed me sitting at a 6/5 table—that would have been embarrassing.