Card Counter Overturns Ban

7 Dec 2009

Card counting is legal, so it is incorrect to ban counters from casinos, argued card counter Thomas Donovan, and the US courts agreed with him and overturned a previous ban, but the casinos are not happy.

Card counting at Blackjack used to be all the rage and was much publicised in the media through a number of movies and books. A number of groups made substantial sums of money using this technique, but were eventually caught by the casinos and banned. Now anybody caught card counting is liable to find themselves with a casino ban, despite the fact that it an entirely legal and many would argue legitimate activity.

Certainly this is how Thomas Donovan reacted after he was banned from the Grand Victoria Casino. He said that as card counting was in essence very easy to do, banning it was an absurdity. A court in Indiana agreed with him, and overturned the ban.

Now the casinos are appealing this decision and have called on the Supreme Court of Indiana to overturn it.

There are a dozen casinos in Indiana and they have seen revenues fall as a result of the national economy. The edge over the casino that card counters gain can be overcome by the casino  by modifying the rules of Blackjack, but these modifications make the game less attractive for non-card counting players, and as a result they play less frequently or for smaller wagers. Thus the casinos argue that they must either ban card counters or lose customers.

Donovan was caught counting in 2006 and was banned by the courts in 2007. This ban was overthrown some months later when the courts rules that card counters had a perfect right to play. The Casinos argue against this saying that they have to right to admit or exclude who they wish.

Donovan regularly earns $6,000 a year at Blackjack and has been counting cards since 1999.