April 14, 2022
Must-Watch: Casino Cheating Expert Reviews Card Counting and Casino Scams From Movies
We’ve written quite a bit about movies that feature casinos and gambling, including how those movies got it wrong. But Vanity Fair brought in casino cheating expert Sal Piacente to break down various tricks and scams seen in 12 different movies and TV shows. In this awesome video, learn which movies got it right, which movies had flukes, and which are using movie magic.
Piacente gives us the inside scoop on signaling in the casino cheating world. He raves about the DeNiro flick “Casino” and its true-to-life take on this popular casino cheat. He also breaks down the different verbal cues and body language used in “21” and compares that to real-life signaling in poker. He also shows us a real-life “thumper,” like the one used in “Casino,” and a shoe computer that calculates a blackjack deck in play, which is in stark contrast to how it’s done in “Rain Man.”
In this fascinating, must-see video, this cheating expert debunks a few myths about casino security and the scams pulled in various movies. For one, he’s baffled by the movie-fantasy version of a security room in “Ocean’s Thirteen,” which is a bit too secure. Then, he talks about how magnetic dice, like the ones Danny (George Clooney) and Rusty (Brad Pitt) use in a craps game, are a bit too risky to play with since they can move unnaturally when they hit the magnetic field. Plus, Piacente scoffs at the fact that Danny and Rusty were able to cash out their chips since the casino was already suspicious of their play.
While “Austin Powers” isn’t known for its realism, Piacente does see some truth in Number 2 being able to “see” through the upcoming card in his blackjack game against the International Man of Mystery. While X-ray eye patches aren’t really a thing, Piacente does point out that there’s such a thing as a “juice deck” that has subtle patterns on the card backs, slyly indicating what’s on the front. Give Piacente’s explanation a watch because you’ll be looking for juice deck patterns in every game of blackjack from here on out.
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