Card Counting Rules

Although many casinos would happily have you believe that card counting is illegal, there are in fact no laws against card counting. It is however prohibited by casinos and anyone caught card counting or under suspicion of card counting will be banned by the casino and may have their information shared with other casinos.

Blackjack is a game of chance and theoretically there shouldnt be anything wrong with card counting as a player is just using their mathematical skills to their advantage but casinos are able to remove card counters from their casinos as it is their private property and is built in to their rules of play. It is just another way that the casino maintains the house edge in their favour.

There are more subtle anti card counting measures that the casino can take. Simply shuffling the deck more often is going to ruin the edge obtained by card counters as it will reduce the information they have about each hand. The dealer can also engage the card counter in conversation in a bid to ruin their concentration. The rules and stakes for splitting and doubling down can also be changed in order to compromise the advantage gained through card counting.

There are more technological anti card counting measures in place. Computer systems can be used in the surveillance rooms which can identify card counting by comparing previous hands and betting patterns of the player with recognised card counting strategies.