"Bad Bet" Blog Post Four

As I have progressed further in this book I have seen some of the issues that the casinos encounter through their journey of the hundred million dollar revenue generating business. Now that these casinos have moved past their involvements with Mob affiliated associates because of the problems they encounter with them they are not able to generate an enhanced rate of revenue with millions of dollars being exchanged sketchily. While this has not impacted the casinos these days, the strategies by the gamblers have negatively impacted some of the gains by these companies. The aspect of card counting has been a way for gamblers to play of the game of blackjack differently as they count cards in order to give themselves a better chance of winning more money. Players can count cards by assigning -1 to high cards and +1 to low cards and then keep a track of their count while playing the game and place their wagers and make decisions during the game based on the current count. There are no laws that exists that disallow the ability to count cards, but if the casinos suspect you of counting cards they could kick you out of the casino and other consequences could occur to those gamblers. In the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's the casinos would deal with these people differently as on top of kicking them out of the casino they would take them outside and beat them brutally trying to teach them the lesson to not count cards in a way the casinos think they are cheating the system. As lawsuits started to pile up because of this physical damage the casinos ended these physical messages sent to the card counters as they were losing more money when being sued by these customers. For some players that card count they are never count because they are not placing large enough wagers at the casinos which are not impacted the money lost in the casino, but the card counters who are making the big bucks are the ones that these casinos crack down on. Tom Hyland a notorious blackjack card counter is recognized is several casinos as he and a group of trusted others place large bets in their success to making a lot of money. Hyland and his team wear wigs and mustaches to cover up their image, but as they are well known by many casinos and have had many bad interactions including being held at gunpoint and being threatened for his card counting. Hyland and his associates have wiggled their ways out of these situations and have continued to make money in different casinos. There is the issue that casinos feel they are being cheated by these gamblers by this strategy, but I do not believe it is a corrupt way to manage your money because just since a gambler may know how to count cards does not mean they will be making a lot of money because a huge part of the game of blackjack is luck through being dealt good cards. Counting cards doesn't guarantee anything and many of these gamblers have lost thousands of dollars also through this strategy. This method takes intelligence and confidence as these customers have to think on their feet and react quickly during the game while having to make their decisions and keeping the count in their head with each card. Many of these gamblers do this as their main job and make up to $100,000 a year but this aspect of life takes in too much stress with the ability to lose thousands of dollars every day along with the anxiety of getting kicked out of the casino if the gambler is recognized when making too much money.