Card Counting in Online and Land Casinos

Card counting is one of the most common blackjack strategies. The object of this strategy is to estimate which cards remained on the card deck according to the cards that were already dealt and to determine the size of the bet according to that. Here you can read about the history of card counting, online card counting and the legal aspect.

Card counting was introduced to the gambling world during the late 1960s by the mathematician Dr. Edward Thorp who published a book called Beat the Dealer. Soon after, card counting became the most popular blackjack strategy amongst Las Vegas casino gamblers.

In order to fight the phenomenon of card counting and maintain their advantage, Las Vegas casinos started to keep track on successful blackjack players who were suspected of card counting and bar them from casinos. Atlantic City casinos decided to fight the problem in different way. The game of blackjack is played with multi card decks. Card counting in multi deck blackjack game requires high level of mathematician mind comparing to single deck blackjack.

Card counting in online casinos is also difficult nowadays. Even though when playing blackjack online no one is monitoring you and you can keep notes during the game, online casinos, the same as land based casinos, have an interest to maintain their house edge. Online casinos usually use more than a single card deck. In addition, online blackjack software is programmed so the cards are shuffled after each hand.

Many blackjack players ask if card counting is legal. The answer is yes, it is not illegal to have a good memory and an ability to use it to analyze probabilities. However, card counters are not warmly welcomed in casinos. Card counting in Las Vegas casinos can put you in the casino blacklist and ban you from playing blackjack for the rest of your life. Atlantic City casinos are not allowed to ban gamblers, but their blackjack rules make the card counting strategy less efficient anyway.