Dealing in an iDEAL World
I'm back from Las Vegas. I planned on leaving one afternoon open to walk through as many casinos as I could with camera in hand. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Still, I managed to find three more examples of iDEAL shufflers with discard trays positioned strategically in front of them. I spotted a hole-card at each of these games. Note that the shufflers are inset to the tables, unlike the pictures in the previous post about this shuffler, thus proving that it's possible to screw things up even after getting things right. This example shows the power of understanding the "why?" of every procedure.
I also spotted a dealer clearly flashing her hole-card at a single-deck 6/5 blackjack game. In all my years, she was one of the best. I watched her for about 5 minutes and looked around. I expected to see a hole-card team moving towards her. My experience is that there are enough AP scouts roaming the casinos in Las Vegas that very few opportunities like this one last for long.
Here are those iDEAL pictures:
Here is a picture that is would have been great with the right camera, but the shutter speed on my point-and-click is very slow. It shows the motion of the dealer's hand over the discard tray.
Finally, here is a picture I snapped of an iDEAL set up safely right next to one of the tables above.