Blackjack Continuous Shuffling Machines

There’s an old rumor that playing single deck blackjack increases your odds of winning from multi-deck blackjack.  The problem with that rumor is that it isn’t true.  Single-deck blackjack pays offs around 6-5 whereas multi-deck blackjack pays higher odds.  But there is a lot of talk out there about the continuous shuffling machines introduced at blackjack tables in this century because the cards are recycled instead of being discarded, resulting in what some people refer to as an “infinite deck.”  Statistics show that because the shuffling speed is increased, the game speed is increased allowing a play to lose his/her money about 20% faster.

Casinos like the idea of using a continuous shuffling machine for blackjack whereas the players dislike the practice.  Casinos make some good points for the continuous shufflers citing fewer instances of card counting, speeding up the game by decreasing shuffling time, and reducing costs by using fewer decks of cards in the shoe.  Just a quick side note – card counting is not illegal; it’s simply not well-received by casinos because it purportedly gives players an advantage.  While casinos like using the continuous shuffling machines, the dealers have expressed their dislike for the machines because shuffling was considered “down time” for dealers mentally and now they get fewer breaks during the game.

The blackjack continuous shuffler works by mixing cards just played/used back into the shuffler with other unused cards.  It sort of randomizes the cards up and down and you never know when a just-played card might pop up with new cards.

Blackjack players feel as though the continuous shuffling machines (CSMs) reduce their odds of winning in a couple of different ways.  First, the speed with which cards can be shuffled increases the speed of the game and gives players less time to strategically make their bets and plays.  Other concerns by players concern what they consider as casino fairness.  To those players, anything that changes the basic outcome of the game may represent an ethical change in the fairness of expected odds. But challengers of that concern point out that by introducing card shufflers, the cards that surfaced to be played during a round of blackjack actually were more random than those hand-shuffled.  They argue that the CSMs actually improved the game.  There is a school of thought that the introduction of continuous shuffling machines turned the game into one less of strategy and more of luck.

There are some rumors out there that some players have figured out a way to “cheat” the system of CSMs by regaining the ability to count cards using something called micro-counting, but there’s not enough of evidence out there at this point to prove or disprove their theory.

There are also books and newsletters out there researching whether or not the use of continuous shuffling machines give casinos an edge against the basic strategy player and studies have also been performed to respond to critics.  The studies’ results showed only a slight change in results in using CSMs vs. hand-shuffling.