Will A Casino Kick You Out For Winning

Five tips to avoid the long walk of shame

• All those tired old tropes like the local police being on the take, or that the casino is rigged or that the casino will throw you out for winning too much. Perhaps James Bond is the only film character to enter a movie casino that isn’t run by the mafia or cheating its customers. But do casinos actually care if you’re winning?
• You may have wondered if casinos would ever kick you out for winning. The answer is yes and no. There are several reasons why a casino would kick you out. Reasons such you ruining a pleasant gambling experience for others is amongst the top reasons.

Win at or above these amounts, and the casino will send you IRS Form W2-G to report the full amount won and the amount of tax withholding if any. You will need this form to prepare your tax return.

by Basil Nestor

It can happen to anyone, even film legend Ben Affleck. On April 28, he was playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. According to Variety, Ben was approached by a casino rep who told him, “You’re too good at this game.” That’s a nice way of saying, “You’re counting cards.” Then the casino declined his action, effectively banning Ben from the blackjack tables. They called him a car, and he left the property.

Some news sources reported that Ben was banned from the Hard Rock, but a few days later, the Las Vegas Review-Journal got a clarification from Abigail Miller, a hotel rep. She said, “Mr. Affleck, a valued guest of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, is not banned from our property and is welcome back any time.” Nice, but is Ben still banned from playing blackjack? She didn’t say.

How did this happen? Can it happen to you? The short answer is yes. Counting cards at blackjack is just one example. Roulette, craps, poker,—all table games are potential breeding grounds for situations that can land you on the pavement, especially if you’re an advantage player. Here’s what you can do to make that less likely.

1. Don’t be so obvious.

One week prior to his adventure at the Hard Rock, Ben was playing blackjack at Wynn. A rep there told him to curb his action. Rob Olivetti, games protection manager at Wynn and Encore, was quoted by Radar Online in an internal e-mail saying, “He was being way too obvious moving his money with the count. He was spreading $100-10K on the double decks and $0-20K (2 at 10K) on the shoe games.”

That’s just crazy! Depending on your blackjack counting strategy, and your preference for cover, you might want a bet spread (low bets vs. high bets) of 1-4 up to 1-12. You might push it to 1-16 if you’re brave. But Ben was betting $100 at the low end, and $10,000 at the high end. That’s a spread of 1-100! He might as well have announced when he sat down, “I’m counting cards!” It was unwise.

Wynn let him play, apparently with a warning. But Hard Rock shut the door.

2. Don’t be tricky with black chips.

According to various sources, Ben was using black $100 chips to keep track of the count. This was wrong for a couple of reasons. Casinos track your black chips. They don’t want you ratholing (sneaking black chips off the table and then claiming you lost money when you really won money). So they’re very aware of how you handle chips. Also, playing at a high-limit table brings extra scrutiny. It’s usually easier to get away with a big spread of 1-12 and ratholing when your bets are $75 to $900 or $150 to $1,800, betting green and black chips at a table in the main casino. Is that boring small stakes for Ben? Probably. But right now his stakes at the Hard Rock are $0. A modest spread of 1-6, $500-$3,000, might have been overlooked if he hadn’t been counting with black chips.

3. Don’t think the scrutiny is only on blackjack

All table games track black chips and higher denominations. They also count greens and reds, but not so carefully. All table games have behaviors that are forbidden or in the gray area of unwanted but not illegal. Some casinos don’t want you setting dice in craps. Some of them don’t want you using visual ballistics or wheel clocking in roulette. Every game has weak points that can be legally exploited, and you shouldn’t imagine that the casino is entirely unaware. So be stealthy. Be cautious. Above all, don’t be greedy. Win a reasonable amount and then quickly go. Don’t pile it up and dare the casino to identify you as an advantage player.

4. Don’t be a jerk. By all accounts Ben was polite when he got the tap.

But many people are shown the door just because they’re jerks. I once had a guy sitting to my left who was ejected because he made an obscene gesture to me. Why was he angry? I correctly hit my hand and took his good card. The floorman went to the trouble of checking the video to confirm the gesture. Then security came and the dude was tossed. A few months ago I was in a game and one player just couldn’t stop cursing, even after a warning. He wasn’t in a bad mood, just had a foul loose mouth. The female dealer and the women at the table had the guy booted.

5. Don’t imagine you’re Jack McCoy or Perry Mason, but do know the law.

Casinos in Nevada can eject you for almost anything, or nothing. Don’t imagine that legal arguments will sway them. They can ban you from a game or ban you from the property. If you return, it’s trespassing. Elsewhere in the country, the rules are generally similar. In Atlantic City, you can’t be ejected for counting, but a casino can take countermeasures to make the game so unprofitable that it becomes pointless. Your strategic goal is to never reach this situation. And, of course, know the law and the rules of your game. Don’t cheat. Cheaters aren’t ejected; they’re arrested. If you’re detained for legal advantage play but not arrested, stay cool and be polite. Remember that casino security are not police. Don’t answer questions, and firmly repeat that you want to leave, gesturing toward the exits so cameras above can see. Walk out unless you’re physically prevented from doing so. And remember to take your chips! Of course, if it gets to this, then your strategy of stealth has gone horribly wrong. Play well. Be careful. Be gracious, and you’ll avoid getting a tap on the shoulder.

Enjoy the game!

Basil Nestor is author of The Smarter Bet Guide to Blackjack, The Smarter Bet Guide to Craps, and other comprehensive gambling guides. Got a question? Visit SmarterBet.com and drop him a line.

Most winning blackjack players rely exclusively on, or at least started their playing careers, counting cards. But counting is not enough. A card counter has to be able to get away with it in a casino. That’s what this article is about.

You probably are trying to win as much money at blackjack as possible. You want to win as much per hour as possible, and you want to keep open the option of playing more hours.

One thing that is important is to develop your own style. Be a one of a kind. This forces casino bosses to figure out what you are doing by watching you in action, which gives you more playing time than if they know what you are doing before you win your first bet.

Every casino has employees who know that blackjack can be beaten, but few casino employees actually know how to beat the game. Playing blackjack is like a war in which the casino employees are the enemy, while you are a spy behind enemy lines who must hide your true identity at all times. Some of the enemy are on the lookout for card counters. They think that they know what a card counter looks like: The garden-variety card counter wins and does so with varying bet sizes. A person who exhibits this behavior is observed intently.

When casino personnel are positive that they have spot ted a card counter, they will take an action to your disadvantage, such as ordering the dealer to shuffle more often than normal.

Of course you must hide your ability. Do not look like you are counting cards. Do not look like you are trying to recall a number from a table. Do not carry any written tables with you. In many jurisdictions, most notably Nevada, you may be barred from play if you are identified as a proficient player. Elsewhere you might find the shuffle point moved up on you. Some casino employees become belligerent, abusive and may even physically harm you. Yes, casino patron abuse still occurs. Some employees might wrongfully accuse you of cheating!

Bet size makes little difference. A $25 bettor who is recognized as a card counter will be subjected to countermeasures, while the careful $100 bettor can continue to play indefinitely.

Keep the dealers and pit critters ignorant of your ability and they will be happy. Never, never let on that you are playing any sort of a winning method. You will be asked in a conversational way if you count cards or have read any books on blackjack. Do not admit to anyone that you are counting cards. (You might pretend that you think counting means adding the indexes to find the hand total.) Do not admit to having understood any book on blackjack. You can act stupid, lucky, un lucky, drunk, sleepy, or whatever, but do not act like you know that you are playing a winning method or you will find the welcome mat withdrawn.

Casino personnel notice small bettors who are big winners and big bettors whether they win or lose. This exposure is unavoidable but relatively harmless because many gamblers bet big and many gamblers have winning streaks. Casino owners who are inhospitable to all winners and big bettors lose more by turning away gamblers than they gain by turning away professional blackjack players.

Except for winning more often than losing, you must look like a gambler if you want to preserve your potential for income from playing blackjack. A gambler who plays blackjack daily for week after week eventually runs out of money. If you play daily in the same casino for week after week, you will eventually lose your credibility in that casino. If you want to play fifteen hours per month in one casino, it will look more natural to cram all of those hours into a two-day period than to play thirty minutes every day for thirty consecutive days. Try to spread your playing among all three shifts -- casino staff put in eight hours a day just like most other working people.

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Excerpted with permission from the e-book version of Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong.

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