The Legality of Card Counting Methods

Card Counting has been a practice prevalent across land-based casinos where players used this technique often to increase their winning opportunities at the Blackjack table. With the casinos spotting players counting cards to their advantage, the operators began employing pit bosses to do the rounds. So, practically the casino can ask you to stop playing if they figure out the tricks applied by you at the casino table. 

Card Counting and Cheating

Now if you were to ask whether card counting is synonymous to cheating, well, not really, say experts. Ideally, it is a well-known strategy akin to using any other strategy in mind-based board games.  Theoretically, it is not cheating as under most of the State and federal laws, card counting is not considered illegal as long as players don’t use any external device to do the counting. Indeed, it involves mathematical calculation that needs an alert mind to track the high and low-value cards remaining in the deck. 

It depends on the casino how they treat customers when they find them counting cards. Although there’s no such legal action that the casino can take, they can always ask the player to stop playing. Some experts believe that card counters mirror what the casino offers them and whatever the casino indicates, Blackjack veterans using this technique follow it, only to beat the house. 

The Legality of Card Counting MethodsReasons Why One Should Avoid Card Counting

Despite the edge, it can provide to players, many professionals advise not to engage in methods of counting cards at the casino tables.  

• It’s not as easy as it appears: A sharp photogenic memory is a basic attribute one needs to efficiently count cards. Mastering it means that keeping a running count, deriving the true count and more to arrive at a numerical value that can be used to change your strategy. While you brush up your mathematical skills, you might also need to learn tactics of how much to stake based on your bankroll and how much of a risk you can tolerate. Quite some hard work!
• Counting cards in a casino is practically difficult: Even if you are proficient in card counting, finding a perfect Blackjack game and the ideal casino environment where you will apply the strategy is not easy. Brick-and-mortar casinos could appear more annoying than you could have imagined, filled with smoke, distractive sounds, players hopping tables, the pit boss striking a conversation with you or fellow players at the table and more.  The worst is if the casino smells something fishy and sounds an alarm with their eyes on you, you might just have to leave in no time!
• Getting caught isn’t so nice: The method of card counting is not hidden from casinos as it’s a popular one. Every casino sets up ways to prevent card counting on all forms by taking precautionary measures. The staff are trained to spot card counters which makes it easy for the casino to quickly identify them within a few hands of gameplay. Casinos have a rulebook that they use to detect whether a player is counting cards or not. They usually closely follow players.
• Spreading their bets through a wide range 
• Who double or take insurance only in situations when their maximum bet is out
• Who either sit out or leave the casino table after making a series of minimum bets
• Who prefer playing alone or hit minimum bets in specific situations. 

Unfortunately, some casinos got to the extent of blacklisting players and alerting other casinos to prevent card counters from playing at their casinos. Few casinos also share images of players to ascertain that the player is denied entry in other casinos as well. So, if you think you can get away with all this and still manage card counting and winning at the Blackjack table, the decision is yours as casinos can’t get your behind bars for counting at least. 

The scope of counting cards when playing online Blackjack is nil as the automated software uses Card Shuffling Machines which continuously and randomly shuffles and distributes cards to players leaving hardly any room for them to savour the advantage of counting tricks.