Anyone know where to buy a light to check for blackjack?

[Sim-X]

like at the casino, they put the cards under a little light, it's green if there is no bj and red if there is. Where can I get one of those? Can you even buy them?

[Grifter]

Yes you can buy them..... Try 'casinocom' or 'casinosupply'.....they might have them......If I remember right, they are very, very expensive (like four or five hundred bucks).

[JeffDubya]

It's called a "peeper" and you can get one that uses a mirror for less than $20.

The red light/green light version is actually a magnetic reader, and you need to use special cards with it. Otherwise, you would never get the red light! :)

[stainless steel rat]

they aren't magnetic. They are small optical character scanners, with a very small microcomputer included. You press the A button and the OCR software looks for a 10/J/Q/K card, you press the 10 button, the OCR software looks for an A.

Normal cards work perfectly in these things, I have several such decks from actual casinos that use them (Beau on the MS coast for example)... they rely purely on OCR algorithms that work almost perfectly for single large letter/number applications such as this...

[JeffDubya]

SSR... then there must be two versions, because the first one I had seen of this variety (the "no look" so to speak) raised my interest and I had a pretty in-depth discussion with the casino manager about it.

So, maybe there is an OCR version, but this version was a mag reader, and all aces, faces and 10s had a little black stripe in the corner, and thats what this particular machine looked for.

Either way, I'm sure they are both spendy, and a mirror version much cheaper.

[stainless steel rat]

OK. Never seen one of those. The ones I have run into either in Vegas or on the MS coast, are all optical. The decks are not marked in any way. I usually have several decks around to practice remaining deck estimation with real casino cards that are usually not quite the same as the cards you buy in the local Wal-Mart. I collect 'em from pit bosses, if you ask they will be more than happy to give you a deck that has been "voided", usually a corner has been cut off or notched or something...

[JeffDubya]

Yeah, I used to do the same, but now just buy cards - they're pretty cheap. I'm just getting into learning to count, so I bought a six deck shoe and I am waiting for my six deck shuffler to arrive any day!

The only time I asked for cards recently is when I got my ass seriously kicked. I was down over $400, and done. Basically, the jist of my conversation was that through my "donation" I had more than paid for those decks, and I wanted to do someone else a favor by taking them home AND BURNING THEM...

This particular pit boss didn't have too much of a sense of humor about it all. He said he could give me different decks or I could wit and get those decks later... I think he missed the point of the joke. Sigh...