How does this reduce the number of hands? Shuffle machines don't care how many decks to shuffle. Therefore, this does not lead to wasted time.
As for the legislation, it is different everywhere, but it's hard for me to imagine that somewhere there is a law prohibiting counting cards and counting your own odds when playing cards.
It is not completely meaningless to count cards with 8 decks of cards but the chances are very low to increase winning portability. The same frequencies will not happen as in 1 or 4 decks of cards, just try to count one of the live dealer games in Blackjack tables. You can use a single-player room which usually has more than 50 people and the time will be your advantage. In the best case, you will have 1 max 2 percent edge over the house, will it worth to use your energy?... As for the legislation, it is different everywhere, but it's hard for me to imagine that somewhere there is a law prohibiting counting cards and counting your own odds when playing cards.
P.s: Check this thread and find the statistical edge in numbers.
I just wrote about this in my other post - theoretically this occupation is profitable, but in fact it is pointless to do it.
It isn't completely illegal per se, but some people can't really card count on their own, so they ask for others to support them, and THIS makes it illegal. It's like those movies where there's a third party behind the bad guy that's winning. Card counting on your own is legal itself, since it is a skill, and you're doing it yourself (without any external device that could help that is).
Now I get it, thanks for the clarification. Under such conditions, this activity can easily be classified as a cheating/violation of the rules of the game.
