Great use of technology! *sarcasm*

Finally we can keep researchers from curing cancer or solving the energy crisis so that some rich casino owner won't lose a fifty dollar hand of blackjack to the mathematics student from Chicago.

Now here's a question... card counting with a computer is illegal. But a human counting cards isn't, as it's just a measure of individual skill... But by the article's admission, the machine that purports to catch card counters also in fact counts cards, keeping track of betting in favorable conditions. To be fair and honest... shouldn't the guys catching the card counters only be legally allowed to count the cards themselves and -not- be allowed any sort of technology aside from basic cameras to monitor multiple tables at once? Seems like the house is being given an unfair gambling advantage...

Actually... if using a machine to count cards is illegal already, wouldn't that make it illegal for the casinos to implement this?

Yeah, good application of human resources towards goals like this. Not that you can stop people from going towards the money and stop the people with the money from doing whatever the heck they want, but besides that this will probably be used to cheat people out of money instead of just looking for counters.

I have no love for casinos.. and I thnk this is complete bull, but I really have to ask the other commenters... since when does being an engineer that researches AI and pattern recognition make you qualified to cure cancer?
I know I personally sat down this morning and decided to either write a video game or end world hunger.... it was a toss up.

I work in a casino. A real casino. Card counting is not illegal. Someone tell me what federal law makes it illegal. Freelance3r is right about artifical means, but with todays eight deck shoe that most casinos are putting in, if you can get a + or - count good for you. Double deck and single deck are on the way out.

I have a question. How long before the casinos use this to detect when the shoe may be in favor of the gambler and send a message to the pit boss to have an early re-shuffle?

Just in case readers are not aware of this: When blackjack came to Atlantic City and the casinos were ready to follow LV's banning of card counters, Ken Houston, formerly of SEC, and one of the world's best counters took the AC casinos to court stating that since only games of chance were allowed in New Jersey casinos, baring card counters was equivalent to defining blackjack as a game of chance and thereby could not be allowed. Needless to say, he was right and the casinos backed off but were allowed to use apply certain adjustments to the game: no mid shoe entry(which stops shadow counters), putting the cut card anywhere they wanted to in the shoe game. This latter tool is enough to cripple any reasonable edge a counter might have almost always. It has never been clear to me that overall, counters make that much difference since the casinos get lots of pseudo counters. These are players who know how to count but are not consistent, making errors many times during play. Errors can cripple any edge a counter might otherwise have turning his/her win probability into a probability of losing. Also, there are many counters who do not know about chance of ruin and what is needed not to face ruin (i.e., lose one's entire bankroll) and just as bad what kind of spread one needs to make sure he is on the winning side. For example, in a 4 deck game (pretty much not around anymore), a spread of 4: bet 1,2,3,4 units (4 max) for a true count of 1,2,3,4 is enough for the player to stay only even with the house! This is for the typical shoe rules as they have in Atlantic City. My guess is that if a survey of the impact all counters was taken the end result would be a minor impact on average to the casinos. I think the AC rules are reasonable and should be the worst any casino in any state should be able to implement.