A steely-eyed, number-crunching, card-playing pro strolls into the Hollywood Casino Columbus and takes a seat at a blackjack table.
Three hours later, he's accumulated stacks of chips by counting cards - a practice that could get him ejected from most Las Vegas casinos.
How would the Hollywood Casino Columbus respond?
That's where Spectrum Gaming comes in.
Officials from Spectrum, the Linwood, N.J., firm hired in part to help Ohio craft rules for its four future casinos, told the Ohio Casino Control Commission yesterday that card counting is one of many law-enforcement issues on which the commission will need help.
"Is card counting illegal in this state? It's one of our great debates we've had over the years," Fred Gushin, Spectrum's managing director, said to the commission.
Although there are no laws against simple card counting - calculating probabilities for upcoming cards based on the cards already dealt, and betting accordingly - anywhere in the United States, casinos in most states are permitted to remove players from the table who they suspect of counting cards.
But in New Jersey, the home of Spectrum and Atlantic City casinos, the Supreme Court ruled that casinos couldn't ban card counters from tables. Dealers are instead permitted to shuffle cards at any time, bar a player from buying into a game mid-shoe, or do other things to neutralize card counters.
Card counting is an old practice, sensationalized through books and movies (most recently, the 2008 movie 21 starring Kevin Spacey) about some Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who took casinos for millions of dollars by counting cards.
"Personally, I love the New Jersey decision, but I understand that most states view it differently," Gushin told The Dispatch. "It's an issue the Ohio commission will have to decide on. Most others have not decided the New Jersey way."
Jo Ann Davidson, chairwoman of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, said she hasn't formed an opinion on how card counters should be treated in Ohio casinos.
The Tropicana in Atlantic City lost $1.86 million at its blackjack tables overall in April and $6 million to one player - anomalies that led some gambling experts to suspect card counting.
Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for Penn National Gaming, which will build and operate the Columbus casino, said his company would like to see the control commission outlaw card counting.
"Given that it's difficult to enforce a strict no-card-counting policy, we also believe the commission should give casinos the right to eject card counters," Tenenbaum said.
Spectrum, which is being paid up to $395 per hour through its contract with the state, budgeted 240 hours toward providing law-enforcement analysis - at a maximum cost of $94,800.
Spectrum submitted a proposal for multiple areas of study to the Casino Control Commission totaling a maximum of 980 hours - which could cost $387,100.
Though Spectrum and Moelis & Co. - the firm advising Gov. John Kasich on how to extract more money from casinos - are being paid out of the Ohio Lottery Commission's budget, Davidson said the Casino Control Commission will reimburse the Lottery Commission for Spectrum's services.
Other law-enforcement issues Davidson's commission will have to consider include staffing. The Casino Control Commission must pay for law enforcement at the casinos out of its budget (roughly $8million in 2012), and can either hire private gambling agents with police training or contract with law-enforcement agencies.
Also yesterday, Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols confirmed that any additional fees or tax revenue Kasich and Moelis can squeeze out of casino operators Penn National and Rock Ohio Caesars will go to the state's schools and to worker training.
