The Edge of I-Hacked

"BlackJack Buster" card counting device from HackersHomepage.com

A quote from their site:
A silent, vibrating, pocket-sized device, designed to resemble a car alarm transmitter, that allows blackjack players to count cards easily, discreetly and accurately. You can accomplish in minutes what takes professional casino blackjack players years to perfect. By following the basic card counting strategy and using your Blackjack Buster, you can make expert, informed decisions before placing your bet or deciding whether or not to take a hit.

I recently received a "BlackJack Buster" device from the people over at HackersHomepage.com. Included inside the packaging was a small key-fob device (the card counter) along with a piece of paper describing how to use it and some general card counting tips (as well as some good blackjack tips). As you can see from the comparison shot below, the device does resemble a key fob from a car alarm system, and would probably fool someone with an untrained eye.

Documentation was included

The device’s main goal is to keep a running count of how favorable the deck is at any point in time. Blackjack counting works like this:

Tens and Aces are assigned a value of -1 because each time one of those cards is drawn from the deck, it makes the deck less favorable to the player. The opposite is also true. For every 2,3,4,5 or 6 that is dealt, the deck becomes more favorable because those cards are being removed. Having the low value cards removed increases the odds that your next card or set of cards will be 10’s or Aces.

Even though it sounds incredibly easy to keep track of in your head, it becomes increasingly difficult when you are playing with a 6-7 deck shoe with multiple players. You have to keep track of every card that is played by every player. That is where this device steps in. By simply pressing the left button for every 10 valued card (10, J, Q, K, A) and the Right button for the low valued cards (2,3,4,5,6) you can easily keep track of when it is time to bet or not. The bottom button gives you a count back by vibrating back the count. Short vibrations indicate a positive count, where long vibrations indicate a negative count.

After playing with the BlackJack Buster I can attest that this device does as claimed. It makes it incredibly easy to keep track of the deck’s "count". Although it does have some obvious flaws (I will get to that in a second).

On the positive side, the device is small, has a very "familiar" shape, and emits a very strong vibration allowing you to easily understand the count. The device is built well and even includes "damper" foam inside to keep the device quiet when vibrating. The BlackJack Buster is incredibly easy to use, and with very little practice you can be "counting" cards with the best of them.

On the negative side, any casino security officer doing his job is going to notice you inputting this information into this device. I don’t care if you are holding it, or tapping it in your pocket — you will be noticed and you will be punished. I would hate to find out what the guys in vegas would do to you if you were found using this. Also the cost for this device is normally $295, although it is currently on sale for $199. As Hackershomepage mentions, you could probably earn this money back in one sitting, but I do feel that even at $199 it is simply too expensive.

Conclusion: This device should only be used to help teach you the finer workings of card counting, or maybe at your local neighborhood blackjack game. Please don’t take it into a casino, you will get busted. The problem is design.. The fact that you would either need to be holding it in your hand, or always tapping your pocket would cause suspicion — it would be a lot better if there were a more stealthy way to input the data…..

How about Toe entry?

I set off to see if it was even possible, first I took the device apart. (Not that uncommon, I usually take every new piece of electronics apart)

I only had to remove one screw to reveal the insides. You can see the AAAA batteries and the "Damper" foam I previously mentioned. Wait did I say AAAA batteries?

After I got done marveling at the small AAAA batteries, I removed them and the Damper foam to reveal the PCB. I had hopes of just tapping into the pre-existing button contacts, but as I saw the PCB I noticed that it was securely in place by melting the stands onto the board. (hard to see in pic, but look below the bottom battery clip, and in between the front ones)

However, I did see something that made me smile — Does anyone see it? Yup, it has a JP1 and JP2 interface. It is time to do some Reverse Engineering! =) Using some extremely hi-tech procedures (two wires which I touched together to simulate a momentary switch) I checked each combination to map out the needed information.

After a few minutes of testing, I came up with the following results.

As you can see, you can interface into the JP2 connector very easily. It would be a very easy task to run some kynar wire to miniature momentary switches (Normally open) and run them so that you can press them with your toes. It would be a lot more difficult for the security officers to discover what you were up to I imagine. (However I would still recommend against it =)