Is Card Counting Illegal on Blackjack?

I get this questions a lot. People have got it wrong, it’s not illegal, it’s just that the casino bosses really hate it. They want to discourage you from doing it, and they try almost any kind of distraction (from talking to you, sending over the cocktail servers, even shortening the available deck by moving up the cut card, so that you’ll have less to work with.

No, it’s not illegal, but it is frowned upon big time. That’s because is actually does work, and they know that blackjack is their only beatable game. It’s their weak spot. That’s why they’ve been trying to introduce a bunch of specialty games into the pit. Some are traditional blackjack with payout differences to make more money for the house, others are completely different.

These games look like blackjack. Some retain most of the feel of the original game, but change the payout structure. For example, the lower limits of blackjack, usually in a ‘pleasure pit’ often pay 6:5 for a blackjack instead of 3:2. Then there are the games that have “21″ or blackjack in their names, and usually have a plexiglas sign on a pole so that it is visible above the heads of the players advertising the game… but it’s like a carnival game, with side bets, and a weird payout schedule that is nothing like the real game.

Just because the table looks like a blackjack table, does not mean that it is a playable game.

Go easy in the casino environment. Stand back and watch for a few minutes before you decide to play. Make sure you are actually playing a standard blackjack game.

Believe me they are becoming a little hard to find.