Spooking is a form of cheating most associated with blackjack. A person positioned behind the dealer tries to catch a glimpse of the dealer’s hole card and then signals its value to a partner sitting at the table. Knowing the hidden card lets the player make near-perfect decisions about when to hit and when to stand.
Spooking has relatives, including first-basing, front-loading and hole carding. Each works in a slightly different way, but all chase the same thing: information that is supposed to stay hidden. Anyone caught spooking, alone or as part of a team, will be escorted out and banned, and depending on the method used and the amount won, the people involved may also face criminal charges.
Hole-card protection in live and RNG games
Tables that follow the European no-hole-card rule avoid the problem entirely, because the dealer’s second card is only drawn after every player has acted. In well-built RNG blackjack, the dealer’s hidden card is never sent to the player’s device until it is revealed.