Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas is a RIPOFF!
Last week while on a vacation in Las Vegas I was walking through Harrah's from the Venetian to the monorail, when I spotted an empty blackjack table with a six-deck shoe and a $10 minimum. So I decided to play a little while. As soon as I placed my bet I saw the printing on the table that read, "Blackjack pays 6 to 5." The dealer and I both had 17, and I immediately cashed out. The dealer asked why I was leaving - was it the 6 to 5 blackjack payout? I said "Absolutely!"
Everyone: Harrah's introduced the 6 to 5 blackjack payout several years ago in their single-deck blackjack game, adopting the lower-than-3-to-2 blackjack payout supposedly to discourage card counters. When I first saw it, I told a floor supervisor at Paris that no one would be stupid enough to play that game. He shrugged it off, as though to say "We'll see!" Well, I was wrong. The typical tourist doesn't know enough to tell how badly he's getting screwed by that change in the game. Eventually, nearly all single deck games in Las Vegas were paying 6 to 5 on blackjack. (The last time I checked the El Cortez was still paying 3 to 2 in their single deck game.)
Here's why 6 to 5 sucks: If a player gets blackjack, he typically tokes the dealer a dollar. In the 3 to 2 payout on a $5 bet, that leaves the player with a $1.50 bonus for his blackjack. Not great, but better than even money. BUT - with 6 to 5, the player either has to stiff the dealer in order to get his bonus, OR he only effectively gets even money if he tips the dealer. Either way, the player and the dealer are getting screwed.
The traditional blackjack game was called Blackjack BECAUSE blackjack is the hand that pops the player an extra BONUS of 50% of his original bet. Card counters took advantage of that bonus for years. Casinos tried various counter measures to hinder them, such as using the six-deck shoe. The game always paid 3 to 2 on blackjack, however. When Harrah's came up with the single deck/6 to 5 game, they radically changed the nature of blackjack. It may look to the average tourist like 6 to 5 only cuts his 3 to 2 bonus by half. BUT - the 6 t0 5 "bonus" actually cuts the traditional bonus by 60%. Here's why: If you got a blackjack at 3 to 2 on a $10 bet, you got paid $15. If you get a blackjack at 6 to 5 today, you get $12. Your bonus is cut from $5 to $2. You lose $3 - or 60% of $5.
Harrah's is now experimenting with putting the 6 to 5 payout on their regular blackjack games - the multi-deck games - as I mentioned above. This effectively destroys the ESSENTIAL NATURE of the game of blackjack. The six deck shoe is the anti-card counter countermeasure in this game. The 6 to 5 payout is simply an attempt to squeeze more money out of the uninformed tourists. Harrah's is ruining the game of blackjack, in a brazen move to SCREW the public. I submit that if they get away with this, they will eventually try to make all blackjack payouts EVEN MONEY!
FUCK HARRAH'S! Don't play at ANY of their properties as long as they keep the 6 to 5 scam going in blackjack! Here are the Harrah's properties to AVOID in Las Vegas:
Caesar's Palace, Paris, Bally's, Flamingo, Rio, Imperial Palace, Harrah's on the strip.
Send this to anyone you know who might ever be interested in going to Las Vegas to play blackjack.
--Bill Malloy