Card counters can win, but not popularity with casinos
Nevada casino operators like customers who trust to Lady Luck when playing blackjack. The player who depends on skill and wins might just be told to beat It. Depending on luck alone, the blackjack player Is likely to lose. Most clubs even welcome "system" players, either because the system doesn't work or the player hasn't learned it. But among the many "systems" there apparently are some which do work, providing the player is willing to put In long hours learning them. One of these systems is card counting. Gamblers claiming to be good card counters complain they are usually invited to play anything but blackjack, or are simply told to get out once they're spotted. Casino spokesmen argue that the card counters may not be cheating, in the usual sense of the word, but are altering the odds in blackjack so that the casino's advantage is lost. Lawsuits are piling up in various courts as self-professed card counters try to "force the casinos to let them play black-jack- or hand over money for damages allegedly sustained when they are barred from the tables. Basically, card counting Is keeping track of pasteboards dealt In a blackjack game, where the object is to get 21, but no more. If most of the 52 cards in the deck have been played and the card counter realizes there's a fistful of high-value cards left which could give him 21 or close to it, he will increase his bets because the odds of winning are improved It's not easy to count.
Casino dealers often reshuffle the deck long before all cards are used and before the card counter can figure out what's left in the deck. Many clubs use more than one deck, sometimes up to six decks stacked in the "shoe,' a box from which cards are dealt to players, Kenneth Uston of San Francisco says he, and up to 100 other card counters, can alter the average 5 per cent advantage a casino holds over blackjack players to a point where the counter holds as much as a 2 per cent advantage. Uston, who holds a master's degree in business from Yale University and was a Pacific Stock Exchange executive before turning to gambling, is the most visible of the counters became of a series of lawsuits he has filed against major Las Vegas casinos Uston, 40, won't say how much money he makes but claims it's enough to provide him "the most enjoyable life I could ever imagine." Robbins Cahill, director of the Nevada Resort Association, says most casinos "don't really like the card counters, because they're changing the natural odds of the game. "In order for a casino to keep operating, you have to keep the odds down to a normal level," says Cahill "We are not in the business for dead even odds " Cahill argues that even though casinos usually have the upper hand, "there are winners here People ran win and win big. But it's a gamble Counting cards is an advantage for the player that the house can't live with In blackjack, it should be the luck of the draw ".
Casino dealers often reshuffle the deck long before all cards are used and before the card counter can figure out what's left in the deck. Many clubs use more than one deck, sometimes up to six decks stacked in the "shoe,' a box from which cards are dealt to players, Kenneth Uston of San Francisco says he, and up to 100 other card counters, can alter the average 5 per cent advantage a casino holds over blackjack players to a point where the counter holds as much as a 2 per cent advantage. Uston, who holds a master's degree in business from Yale University and was a Pacific Stock Exchange executive before turning to gambling, is the most visible of the counters became of a series of lawsuits he has filed against major Las Vegas casinos Uston, 40, won't say how much money he makes but claims it's enough to provide him "the most enjoyable life I could ever imagine." Robbins Cahill, director of the Nevada Resort Association, says most casinos "don't really like the card counters, because they're changing the natural odds of the game. "In order for a casino to keep operating, you have to keep the odds down to a normal level," says Cahill "We are not in the business for dead even odds " Cahill argues that even though casinos usually have the upper hand, "there are winners here People ran win and win big. But it's a gamble Counting cards is an advantage for the player that the house can't live with In blackjack, it should be the luck of the draw ".