When you first learn dealing, you get bits and pieces about how people make mistakes and do sloppy things like bending the dare a little at times. They might have food on their hands, dirt under their fingernails; there are plenty of things that people can accidentally do to make suspicious marks on cards, which warn the better dealers to pay close attention with their peripheral vision. This means to keep an eye, not on just the person making the obvious mistakes, but keep an even closer eye on anyone sitting across from that particular player, and do it in a way that they have no idea you're watching them. The cheat rarely takes place by the single person who would have to figure out how to mark the cards, but by groups of people, normally three. But this is where surveillance just about draws the line. They watch for card markers, scrapers, benders, etc. Roulette has been just about able to take all the cheat out of it by installing very short stops (the metal bars between numbers) and using two different size balls. This gives the dealer, the floor and the shift boss's descretion to change the balls whenever they feel it might be necessary, although it really doesn't matter.

Changing a deck of cards or the dice never changes anything unless there's a cheat involved. In every other game, the implements of the game must remain the same. Each die is regularly checked by the shift boss whose job it is to see that every die is exactly the same every day, throw-to-throw and it's his job to take those dice off the table whenever he feels something is fishy or just whenever they're running even slightly off center. But games like Bacarrat and Roulette are rarely cheated, simply because so much attention has been drawn to them lately, thanks to all the television documentary shows about the casinos, the cheating that goes on and exactly how it's done.

Howard Dorfman, a casino security manager at a major strip casino raised hell when the Discovery Channel came to his casino's monthly meeting and pitched a segment about the hotel, including surveillance, to the board of directors. They were going to show everything from the daily buffets to the showgirls getting ready for their acts; even the cocktail waitresses working in unison with the bartenders to demonstrate how they can produce hundreds of drinks an hour on a busy Saturday night. The biggest underground money in this town by far is tipping money and nobody wanted to see that on TV. When I get you a beautiful blonde that will fulfill your every need, I guarantee you before any pleasures take place between your front pockets, your cash is going to be coming out of your back pocket first. But that's a different story for a different time.

It was a fairly unnoticed drug that was coming from across the border; potent yet mostly just a problem in Central America. But in Cabo San Lucas back during New Year's, a guy was found beat up in the street. Not just any guy, but a very rich American loan shark. This was the wrong guy to be beating on. He was in Cabo with a girl and although he rarely left home without security, this time he did and he'd pay for it. Somehow a kidnapping charge got the Feds involved. While searching the plane he had, they found a stash of thousands of pills. The pills weren't marked in any way and no pharmacist could identify them until almost a week later when the results came back from a testing lab that showed them to be a mixture of two chemicals that together - especially with a small amount of alcohol - produced almost instant results. This one is the size of a half a pinky nail and in a drink on an empty stomach, can completely knock you out within three minutes. The other thing about these types of new new drugs is that they completely wipe out your memory, no matter how much time you spent with anyone or whatever you did.

I can't explain to you exactly how the drugs work, but it's quite amazing. The trend was started by the drug Halcyon years ago and one thing led to another until the drug itself became so potent and effective, it can only be compared to Quaaludes of the '70s. This kind of drug can be hidden under a fingernail, slipped into a drink and within ten minutes or so the next thing that will be remembered is the taste of the carpet. I was in the hospital for surgery once and couldn't sleep, so they gave me just one sleeping pill and I slept half way through the next shift. Now, there's a new drug on the market. It comes in a tablet the size of a sesame seed. It works like the other drug but not quite as long, and by the time you wake up your friend could be in Cancun spending your Rolex. The drugs act so fast that, unless you administer an antidote before you take it, you can't help but succumb to its effects.

Here in Las Vegas it's a huge problem. The crooks using it get rooms under phony names and relieve you of any unnecessary valuables literally within minutes. The one dose I was given took less than 10 minutes to work and that was with no alcohol or any other drugs that could enhance the effects. So what can I tell you about how to avoid this epidemic? Since you can't see or smell or taste it, it's impossible to tell you what to look for. There is one way to tell immediately if you've been doped, but it's rather difficult to do. Visine put into the liquid turns the drink purple, but then you can't drink the drink with or without the Visine. Ecstasy, which these new drugs are replacing, was a potent drug. But it was much easier to detect in a drink and many of the victims could pick out the offender from a police line up. But the new drugs leave your memory completely wiped out. It's hard to believe but it works without fail. I can't get into the names of the drugs, if only because people would go out to find them, since the components are easily purchased in Mexico, if not in the United States. So, now we have more dangerous problems coming from over the border, except this isn't like smuggling bricks of marijuana or cocaine. Thousands of hits could be put in someone's underwear. I've been across the border plenty of times from T.J. to Mexicali, to Yuma and I can tell you; you hand them your drivers license, they might ask you a question about where you're from, like they'll ask me which hotel has the volcano and you're in, no searches, no dogs, no metal detectors.

I can't tell you to quit drinking alcohol; it wouldn't work anyway, since it could be put in water. It could also be crushed up and slipped into your food, although that doesn't work as well. So the things I can tell you to keep yourself safe are: 1.) Keep all but $20 on you. 2.) Don't carry a wallet or purse. 3.) Don't ever eat again. 4.) Don't ever drink again. 5.) Lock yourselves in your homes and if you must eat, I hear the 7-11 hot dogs and hamburgers are safe, without the sauerkraut. And that's all the information you're getting out of me.

Ken Pearlman