Random Thoughts

[Molandfreak]

I bought a pack of playing cards (the first time I ever had). Scott probably knows the answer to this, even though it was plastic-wrapped there was a seal on the box. Is this meant as an anti-tampering device for those using the cards in more professional contexts?

Every pack of cards I have bought has had a seal of some kind, except for some special order decks with additional suits. I don't think casinos keep their cards around very long, and they may even rotate them after a single shift. So the seals add an extra layer of authenticity to ensure they weren't tampered with by anyone.

I also have a deck that I got for free from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Community, and those cards have a hole punched through them. So the standards for ensuring authenticity and game fairness might vary depending on the casino.

[Scott5114]

I bought a pack of playing cards (the first time I ever had). Scott probably knows the answer to this, even though it was plastic-wrapped there was a seal on the box. Is this meant as an anti-tampering device for those using the cards in more professional contexts?

Yes, although it's more traditional than anything. It's basically meant to be a guarantee that nobody has opened the box, marked the cards, and put them back. Of course, it isn't too hard to defeat that seal (you can get it off in one piece if you heat it up, and then reapply it after marking the cards), and nowadays the cellophane does a better job as an anti-tamper device anyway.

I believe the practice dates all the way back to the Stamp Act—playing cards were one of the things the Stamp Act taxed. I've seen old books (John Scarne in particular) refer to the "revenue stamp" in a context that makes it clear they're talking about that seal, so I think the first box seals were the tax stamps required by the Stamp Act, thus giving them dual use as proof of legal compliance and as an anti-tampering device.

I don't think casinos keep their cards around very long, and they may even rotate them after a single shift. [...] I also have a deck that I got for free from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Community, and those cards have a hole punched through them. So the standards for ensuring authenticity and game fairness might vary depending on the casino.

Paper cards are generally discarded any time a table closes down. Every casino has a standard procedure for closing a table, which generally involves taking the cards out of the shoe, sorting them back into 52-card decks, arranging each deck in the order the cards came out of the box (A♥, 2♥, 3♥...K♥, A♣, 2♣, 3♣...K♣, K♦, Q♦, J♦...A♦, K♠, Q♠, J♠...A♠) to ensure all cards are present, and then packaging them back up and sending them to the back, where they will be cancelled (defaced) in some way so that if someone gets ahold of the deck afterward it can't be marked and reintroduced into play somehow. Drilling a hole is a standard way of doing it (and is good because it makes the deck still readily usable for home use, meaning the casino can sell a portion of the cancelled decks in the gift shop), but the casinos I worked for cut the corners off (I think because it was faster and/or cheaper, but it makes it harder to shuffle them).

There's a store (Gambler's General Store at 727 S. Main) in downtown Las Vegas which has a wide assortment of cancelled decks for sale, including some from properties that don't exist anymore. I have a full six-deck shoe of cancelled cards from the Frontier, which closed in 2007. If you are into gambling paraphernalia like that, I highly recommend making a stop there. They even have a few used slot machines for sale (though the rules on possessing those in Nevada are quite a bit more stringent than things like used cards since there's really not much you can do with a slot machine that isn't collect money from someone).

What causes a table to close varies based on the casino and game. Usually tables gradually open as the casino starts getting busy on swing shift and gradually close down over the course of grave shift. I once went to a rural casino in Oklahoma during grave, and they only had one dealer on duty, standing at a dead spread on UTH. I expressed dismay since I wanted to play blackjack, so they moved the dealer over to the blackjack table, but first he had to shut down the UTH table, which meant the UTH cards were all cancelled and six fresh decks of cards were put into play on the blackjack table just for me. I understand that for baccarat (i.e. not mini-bac) they use each card just once, because players are traditionally allowed to touch the cards and therefore they are treated as though they are marked, and new cards are introduced for each shoe.

Plastic cards (which are only used for poker) are allowed to stay in play until they show signs of actual wear or tampering, although I don't know how often poker rooms take advantage of this in practice. Every cancelled plastic poker deck I have is still in good condition other than the cancellation marks.

The regulations for this emanate from whatever the governing body is for casinos in that jurisdiction. Here, that's the Nevada Gaming Control Board. For tribal casinos, each tribe has its own gaming commission that issues rules that are in compliance with the National Indian Gaming Commission, which is part of the US Department of the Interior. Each casino will additionally have policies that implement these rules and ensure they are complied with; the strictness of these policies varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Tribal gaming tends to be hilariously stringent with rules like "all dealing to the leftmost two players must be done with the left hand only and all other players must be dealt with the right hand only"* since making a big show of compliance with NIGC is important, while in Nevada it's a lot more loosey-goosey (I guess since the GCB carries guns, and if that doesn't make you care about GCB regulations no amount of company policy will).

* Gee, do you guys see why I'm doing better in Nevada than I was in tribal gaming?

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

The stuff we do on a daily basis in 2026 were probably considered crazy or for the rich only at one point.

[Max Rockatansky]

My wife wants to buy a 2026 RAV4 Woodland.  She wants to put $15,000 down but only has $10,000.  I'm to understand that she wants to help out with the remaining $5,000.  I'm leaning in favor of this because it would get us a second high clearance vehicle.  It probably also sweeten her up to the suspension modifications that I want to make to her 2018 Forester. 

[Molandfreak]

The MPAA has become a joke. I would say that of the five Toy Story movies, the fifth one does the absolute least to justify a PG rating, yet it's the only one in the series that is not G.

Are there even any G rated movies anymore?

[vdeane]

The MPAA has become a joke. I would say that of the five Toy Story movies, the fifth one does the absolute least to justify a PG rating, yet it's the only one in the series that is not G.

Are there even any G rated movies anymore?

Just wait until you see the content warnings the FCC is trying to mandate.

[formulanone]

The MPAA has become a joke. I would say that of the five Toy Story movies, the fifth one does the absolute least to justify a PG rating, yet it's the only one in the series that is not G.

Are there even any G rated movies anymore?

I guess Andy is about 38-39 years old now...

[CoreySamson]

The MPAA has become a joke. I would say that of the five Toy Story movies, the fifth one does the absolute least to justify a PG rating, yet it's the only one in the series that is not G.

Are there even any G rated movies anymore?

I guess Andy is about 38-39 years old now...

At this rate I wonder what rating Toy Story 157 will have...

https://babylonbee.com/news/time-traveler-from-year-3247-warns-theyre-still-making-toy-story-movies

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

Gender differences aside, why do all news anchors sound alike?

[kenarmy]

My wife wants to buy a 2026 RAV4 Woodland.  She wants to put $15,000 down but only has $10,000.  I'm to understand that she wants to help out with the remaining $5,000.  I'm leaning in favor of this because it would get us a second high clearance vehicle.  It probably also sweeten her up to the suspension modifications that I want to make to her 2018 Forester. 

Congrats on locating one, I hope the dealer won't rip y'all off. Would she be willing to wait until MY 27?

[Max Rockatansky]

My wife wants to buy a 2026 RAV4 Woodland.  She wants to put $15,000 down but only has $10,000.  I'm to understand that she wants to help out with the remaining $5,000.  I'm leaning in favor of this because it would get us a second high clearance vehicle.  It probably also sweeten her up to the suspension modifications that I want to make to her 2018 Forester. 

Congrats on locating one, I hope the dealer won't rip y'all off. Would she be willing to wait until MY 27?

She put a deposit down yesterday.  Apparently it is in transit and will arrive in early August.  The dealer ad didn't indicate a markup over MSRP.  She'll probably walk if they somehow change their tune last minute.

[kphoger]

Are there even any G rated movies anymore?

The most recent well-known ones were probably WALL-E and the Cars movies..

For movies that aren't animated, go back 25 years, and The Princess Diaries was rated G.  More recent ones though?  Hmmmm...  Yeah, you're right, practically nothing is rated G anymore.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The MPAA has become a joke. I would say that of the five Toy Story movies, the fifth one does the absolute least to justify a PG rating, yet it's the only one in the series that is not G.

Are there even any G rated movies anymore?

It's likely a combination of creative flexibility (the double entendres that adults will get while kids won't)*, concerns that G-ratings will disengage potential viewers, and just "better safe than sorry" thinking.

*I remember in Inside Out 2 when they're taking Riley to hockey camp, dad asks what mom wants to do this weekeind while Riley is gone with a look on his face obviously hoping for a, shall we say, weekend making love in the bedroom while mom launches into her to-do list.

[Scott5114]

I'm guessing they have rubrics that are calibrated to what was considered culturally acceptable in the past and have never been updated to line up with the more permissive society we have today. I don't know if it's still the case, but I believe at one point even acknowledging a character was gay was enough to disqualify a film from carrying a G rating.

[GaryV]

"Awkward" is an awkward word.

[kphoger]

I'm guessing they have rubrics that are calibrated to what was considered culturally acceptable in the past and have never been updated to line up with the more permissive society we have today.

But that doesn't explain the phenomenon.  What we're saying is that movies that got a G rating in the past would get a PG rating if produced today.  What you're suggesting would make for the opposite.

Ben-Hur (1959) — man set on fire, men whipped to bleeding, blood flowing from Jesus' crucifixion, rated G

Planet of the Apes (1968) — gun battles, including some brief blood splatter, rated G

The Secret of NIMH (animated, 1982) — sword-fight duel ending in bloody death, rated G

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (animated, 1996) — occupied house set on fire, song Hellfire is about lust and damnation, rated G

Or, to put it another way, we now live in a world where Zootopia has the same rating as Jaws.

[Max Rockatansky]

PG essentially now what G was.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The most amusing one is Spaceballs, which was rated PG even after the introduction of the PG-13 rating, and arguably even with that latter point could very justifiably have been an R for the language and suggestive jokes.

Star Trek Generations, which had an "oh shit" and a scary crash landing scene, was PG.

[Max Rockatansky]

Weren't PG movies like Temple of Doom and Poltergeist the catalyst for the creation of the PG13 rating?

[Big John]

On the other hand  Blazing Saddles got an R rating as they ghought it was too risqué for a PG rating at that time.

[Molandfreak]

The most amusing one is Spaceballs, which was rated PG even after the introduction of the PG-13 rating, and arguably even with that latter point could very justifiably have been an R for the language and suggestive jokes.

Star Trek Generations, which had an "oh shit" and a scary crash landing scene, was PG.

I believe each movie in the Back to the Future trilogy had at least one "shit" in it, and the latter two were released after PG-13 was created. Big even drops the f-bomb a couple of times, and it's still PG.

Early on in the ratings system, G seemed to be given as the default rating and it was just assumed that any movie you walked into would carry some plot tension or adult themes. True Grit and Planet of the Apes are both G. Maybe it's time to start going back to that mentality a bit since you can look up the details about any movie online before deciding to watch it. There was quite a bit of uproar about Turning Red being rated PG rather than PG-13, but I think PG was an appropriate rating for it. The problem is lumping it in the same category as Frozen or Wish, which are about as racy as the first Toy Story.

[Rothman]

The fact that The Outlaw Josey Wales was rated PG with an attempted rape scene and a massacre by gatling gun was appalling to me.

I think the MPAA rating system has definitely improved over time.  I mean, I think it is more common now when a parent brings a kid into a rated R movie and acting appalled that the reaction is wondering what was wrong with the parent rather than the rating system.

[kphoger]

I mean, I think it is more common now when a parent brings a kid into a rated R movie and acting appalled that the reaction is wondering what was wrong with the parent rather than the rating system.

I grew up in a small town, and I went to see the movie every week with my friends for a time.  This was around junior high age, early high school.  If the movie was rated R, then I just had to call my parents for them to verbally give the ticket seller permission to let me in.  I think eventually they stopped even asking and let us in without that phone call.

[Scott5114]

I've never quite grasped what the difference between PG and PG-13 is supposed to be, or which one is supposed to be worse.

Also, why does the TV rating system not match that for movies? There's a TV-14 rating instead of a PG-13. Do you have to be a year older to be mature enough to deal with commercial breaks or something?

[TheHighwayMan3561]

There's a certain arbitrary nature to it anyway. I've heard of movies that would otherwise be PG except for the reason of somebody saying "fuck" a couple times.