To encourage more betting, in the excitement of the moment when the wheel is spinning one way, the ball is circling the other way, and the outcome is mere seconds away...

Slow things down, require all bets to be placed before the croupier spins the wheel and throws the ball, and you'll have taken away some of the mystique and the adrenaline of betting on this bouncing, glittering thing that's happening right now in front of your eyes, and some of the casual gamblers will get bored and walk off.

The article confirms this:

> There’s one surefire way casinos could stop prediction: calling “no more bets” before the ball is in motion. But they won’t. That would cut into profits by limiting the amount of play and deterring casual gamblers.

Having to wait for all bets to be placed before starting the spin would also reduce the average number of spins per hour which would reduce the casino's profit per table-hour.

How can customers be assured the casino isn't using a magnet or some other cheating device?

Gambling regulations and board certify / audit these machines / tables, etc?

How can the consumer have confidence in any of those?

By not gambling.

How do consumers have any confidence in the FAA, EPA, FDA, or any other entity that performs checks and balances?

At least with the FDA I'm eating food and taking medicines that doesn't make me or the people around me sick all the time (as they did before the founding of the FDA).

With casinos it's the opposite. Their customers regularly lose their shirts. Maybe the games aren't rigged, maybe they are, as someone who regularly loses (as most gamblers do), they might as well be rigged and I would not be surprised if there was regulatory capture and the consumer would have no way to know.

You can't, but, at least in Las Vegas, the machines are under fairly strict protocols. If a customer makes a complaint, things get sealed and impounded almost immediately.

And, besides, if it ever got out that a casino was doing that, it would basically fold up overnight.

Why would the casino need that, when they can have anybody who wins arrested?

The game would seem really boring if that's how it worked. There's an energy when the ball starts going that makes you want to bet.

It's probably because people would believe the dealer is cheater and throwing harder or softer in exactly the same way.

Or it is so the casino can argue roulette is a game of skill instead of chance. But this would be paradoxical.

from the article

> There’s one surefire way casinos could stop prediction: calling “no more bets” before the ball is in motion. But they won’t. That would cut into profits by limiting the amount of play and deterring casual gamblers. Instead, the industry seems willing to pay a toll to a select few who know the secret, while trying to design out the flaws that make the game vulnerable.

Because it wins them more money, until wearable PCs come on the scene.