KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasCard Counters Getting Raw Deal?
(July 11) -- There are some serious allegations being leveled by so-called card counters. While everyone who plays blackjack uses card counting to one extent or another, trying to figure out what cards might come up next, professional card counters take this technique to much higher levels, greatly increasing their wagers when the cards favor the player.
Contrary to perceptions, card counting is perfectly legal, but the casinos don't like it. And according to the players, things can get pretty nasty.
In the hit film "Rainman," a savant played by Dustin Hoffman confounded the casino by counting into a six-deck shoe. By figuring out when the face cards were more likely to fall, he and the Tom Cruise character were able to rake in about $85,000.
In reality, card counters say, Dustin and Tom would have been bounced out of the casino long before they won that much.
"Last December, in 30 minutes, I was thrown out of four places," said Eliot Jacoben, professor and card counter.
Jacobsen has some of Rainman's abilities. He's a Ph.D mathematician, now teaching computer science at a major university, a world-class chess and bridge player who happens to also count cards. It's the latter hobby that has made him a marked man in Las Vegas.
"Being a card counter is akin to a cheat, but this is not cheating. There's no sign on the wall that says 'thou shalt not use thy brain.' It's not illegal to make a bet at blackjack, but when I make a bet, I get tossed. When others bet, they get comps," Jacobsen said.
As long as no devices are involved, card counting is not illegal. In fact, the notion that blackjack can be beaten by players who pay attention to the cards is the exact reason the game is so popular. Booklets that teach counting techniques are sold in every casino in the state. More advanced books, sold at places like the Gamblers Book Shop, have created a community of a few thousand advanced players who say the casino paranoia is getting ridiculous.
"They're tougher than ever before. If the casinos continue at this antagonistic level, they'll kill the game of blackjack, and people will be standing around the tables," said Howard Schwartz of Gamblers Book Shop.
In general, players say, casinos will either tell the counter to stop playing or will 86 them off the property. More recently, though, players say the ante has been upped. Players find themselves handcuffed, hauled into backrooms where they can be detained for hours, questioned, photographed, threatened and sometimes roughed up.
David Matthews runs the world's busiest blackjack Website.
"There have been lawsuits. One friend, between he and his four friends have four settlements against casinos for brutality," said Matthews, bj21.com administrator.
"They rough you up. First, they handcuff you. It's three of them vs. you, and they handcuff you. I mean, you're a card counter," said Viktor Nacht, card counter.
Nacht is a player who also publishes blackjack books. He says there have been numerous legal complaints filed by players against casinos for illegal detainment or worse, but nearly all of them have been sealed after settling out of court. But that may be changing, as players like Eliot Jacobsen appear willing to speak out, even if it makes them more of a target.
"I don't believe this interview will be the end of my playing but if it is, so be it," said Jacobsen.
This isn't just an issue for card counters, the players say, but rather for anyone who loves blackjack. The casinos have gone to such lengths to defend against counters that the game itself has changed radically and may no longer be beatable. They compare it to a rigged slot machine.
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