I don't about any massive conspiracy where the casinos are manipulating the deck for good hands. Seems impossible to do. (Not to mention the fact it seems pretty stupid to cheat when they don't keep the money that you lose.) Not keeping the money won by the casino leads in to why there is an ante. Under the current compact with the state, casinos are not allowed to operate any "banked" table games. Basically, casinos aren't allowed to keep their winnings. The money the casino takes in must be refunded back to patrons. This is almost always done via a blackjack tournament. the casino makes money off of the ante. (It's basically the same thing as a buy in to poker game.) I believe the casinos do have to split the commissions with the state, although I don't know the breakdown on that.

It sucks for the players to cough up an ante for every hand of blackjack. Especially since most people are $5 players. That means you are paying 10% commission for every play. makes it virtually impossible to come out ahead in the long run even if you play perfectly.

I figure eventually the commission/ante thing will go away. Many states that are light years ahead of us in terms of Indian gaming began the same way we did. It's kind of an evolutionary thing I guess.