It's easy to fall into the belief that card counting is legal. Movies make us believe so and if you have had friends who tell you the same, you need to know that they were just lucky. Because in reality, card counting is as illegal as life-endangering drugs.
Casinos don’t like players who count cards and will do everything under their power to ensure that you don’t count cards. So to get a better view on the same, let’s get into the details of card counting and also move into the game that brings to the table, i.e. blackjack.
The Big Misconception
Understanding whether or not card counting is illegal or legal is quite hard and we have all been in situations where we fell for the latter. We end up assuming that card counting is legal while playing Blackjack because we may have believed our favourite movie characters to be telling us the truth.
So let’s leave movies aside and come down to reality. Casinos don’t like players who count cards, be it blackjack card counting or any other form of counting if they exist. While online casinos are an exemption on this front, offline casinos are not. And by all means, they have some of the best measures to track down people who count cards.
And one of the best examples of people being banned for counting cards is Batman actor Ben Affleck. The Hollywood superstar was banned from Hard Rock Casino, mainly because he had a good memory of remembering eliminated cards and that ultimately led to card counting. The superstar, who is known to be a good gambler, cannot enter the casino, although, he may be welcome at other casinos.
Card Counting For Online And Offline Casinos
Online casinos don’t really have a way of finding out whether you are counting cards while playing Blackjack mainly because it is impossible to count cards.
The deck is shuffled after every round and thus, it is not possible to count cards. On the other hand, the story is quite different for offline casinos.
Land-based casinos have several options under their belt to punish players who are caught counting cards. While they don’t openly call it illegal, they will openly pick you from the table if you are caught counting cards. So here’s all that can happen even though counting cards in blackjack or poker is technically legal.
• A Ban From Blackjack
Certain casinos might not ban you from the premises or tell you not to step into their property. But they will in fact tell you to stop playing Blackjack. Yes, that’s right. Several players, both in the UK and USA, have had to deal with situations where they were asked not to play Blackjack and switch to another game where counting cards was impossible.
• A Ban From The Casino
What’s the worst that could happen for counting cards? Well, it is simple, a ban from the casino. Land-based casinos can ban you from their premises and if you happen to enter that place again, you may be charged with trespassing which is a real crime. So while counting cards is a piece of cake for some, getting banned may not be so.
• Shuffling
Shuffling the deck after every round is not something that you see in offline casinos. However, if the management has doubts over players, they will try to close the advantage by constantly shuffling. The move is more or less the last option, considering the drop in productive playtime for poker or blackjack. So if a casino wants to be more advantageous than the player counting cards, they will shuffle the decks at blackjack tables.
