5 Things you should know about Card Counting:
- Card counting is NOT cheating. Card counting is simply using your brain, like a winning chess player. Fortunately, using your brain is still perfectly legal in the US! There are a couple reasons why people think card counting is illegal. First off, TV and movies haven’t done us any favors. In “21: The Movie,” Lawrence Fishburne chases card counters into the bowels of the casino, points a gun at them, and handcuffs them. THIS IS NOT REAL LIFE! Generally, they’re more scared of me than I am of them. The second reason people think card counting is illegal is because…
- YES, casinos can ask you to stop playing. In the same way that I’d pout and give up playing 1-on-1 basketball against Kobe Bryant, casinos can say that they don’t want you to play against them anymore because you are too good. They may treat you like you’re the bad guy, but the winning card counter is just the rare person who has taken the time, energy, and resolve to master how to beat the game. But that doesn’t make it illegal. (Watch me get backed off from a casino in this undercover video)
- Card counters play the game exactly how the casino offers it. It’s not like using a dice with all 6’s, but like being better than someone else at scrabble. They may beat you sometimes, but you will win more often over the long-haul. Blackjack just happens to be the only casino game that can be consistently beaten EXACTLY how they offer it.
- You can make REAL money at card counting! We’ve taken millions from casinos over the years. It’s documented in the movie “Holy Rollers“, there are many professional card counters on our blackjack forum (none of whom break the law), and there are dozens of card counting books that explain how.
- You can learn to count cards! Many people think you have to be a rocket scientist or brain surgeon to learn to beat card counting. But we’ve trained hundreds of people to beat the game. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s a learnable skill.
And if you feel like Casinos are justified in treating card counters like criminals, consider these 3 reasons why Card Counters are more like Casinos than casinos want you to think:
- We have used statistics to set up a way to have the advantage against our customer (Get it? The Casino is a card counter’s customer)
- We gladly allow the customer to play the game against us, as long as we know we will win in the long run.
- We are there for your money! (Casinos say, “Win Big!” and are set up like Disneyland for grownups. But they are there for 1 reason: to empty your bank account. Similarly, I don’t mind if the casino thinks I’m there just to have a good time. If I want a good time, I’ll watch Monday Night Football with my wife and some friends. If you find me in a casino, it’s because I’m there to beat them out of their money, fair and square!). It’s just business.*
Hopefully that sheds some light on what card counting is and isn’t. To learn more about the what, why, and how of card counting, sign up for our FREE Card Counting Mini-Course: