Wednesday, March 03, 2004

A Los Angeles lawyer has sued MGM Mirage for banning him from their casinos. MGM barred him because they believe he was counting cards. He describes himself as "better than average blackjack player," and says while he doesn't count cards, "You don't even need to count cards. There are some obvious runs ... and it's patently obvious that there is nothing wrong with being able to figure that out." Franseschi wants MGM to label their advertising in California with the disclaimer "It is the policy and practice of MGM Mirage particularly to target skillful and/or winning players and bar such persons from gaming at our properties; only losing players and/or unskillful players ... are not subject to being targeted to be barred from MGM Mirage casino properties."

Standard Deviance, being a frequenter of Atlantic City and a so-so blackjack player, loved the book Bringing Down the House which detailed the winnings and losings of the MIT card counting team. Given that most "skillful" blackjack players are eventually banned for card counting, which by the way is not illegal, it would be interesting to see what changes might take place were Mr. Franseschi to win his suit. Certainly the casinos don't have to give their money away, but the number of people out there who can count cards is small and is certainly outweighed by all the fools coming over from Japan and betting $1000 on craps. Anyway, most card counters days are numbered given casinos are starting to use automatic shufflers after every hand.

In Related News, Bookies Stop Taking Bets on Life on Mars [AP]