BLACKJACK ON THE BOARDWALK: ATLANTIC CITY

Some players were rude and obnoxious. I saw one poor tourist waiting patiently for nearly an hour for a seat. When the player in front of him finally got up to leave, the tourist moved back slightly to let him out. In the gap, a woman walking by the table quickly darted in and sat down to play. When the tourist com-plained that he had been next, the woman replied in typical Jer-sey fashion, "Look, buster, I'm sitting here now and if you touch me I'll scream my lungs off for security." A couple of the tourist's friends (male and female) were ready to drag the woman off the chair despite her threats when the pit boss stepped over. As he was listening to everybody talk to him at once, another seat freed up.

The pit boss quickly directed the tourist to the empty chair in front of the other waiting people and beat a hasty retreat. What a place! It never ceases to amaze me when a little pushing and shoving starts how quickly people start acting like four-year-olds.

Resorts International made the Las Vegas casinos look like the Salvation Army. Resorts' goal was, "Everybody loses." Most ca-sinos are happy to have winners floating around to keep the troops of losers motivated. Despite profits far outstripping any-one's wildest imaginations, Resorts didn't want anyone to win. Why should they when they had more players than they could handle?

A good example is what happened to me at the twenty-five-dollar tables on the second afternoon. By now I was playing alone, since my friend had gotten disgusted and retired for the trip. I chose a table with a young woman dealer and sat down. After a few minutes, she had a miserable run of luck, busting ten times in a row off the top of a freshly shuffled shoe. I won back all my previous losses in this string. The pit boss, looking like a three-hundred-pound penguin with his big belly and black suit, noticed our table's success and ran over. He leaned close to the dealer and whispered softly in her ear. I listened carefully and heard him say, "Cut the deck in half." She immediately shuffled and placed the cut card halfway into the four decks, leaving two decks to be undealt.

I had heard and seen enough. The casino didn't even want the players to have so much as a short run of luck if it could be avoided. There was no reason to cut the deck in half. Card count-ing didn't cause the dealer to bust ten times in a row. But Resorts was taking no chances. That was the last time I've played in At-lantic City and I don't intend to go back until there is more com-petition, or until the Casino Control Commission does something about the casinos' operations.

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