Lawsuits against Casinos by Gamblers, Blackjack Card Counters
About the 21 Movie
By Ion Saliu,
Founder of Gambling Mathematics, Founder of Blackjack Mathematics
I came across two recent legal cases against the casinos. One was posted on the BJ21 forum, another one like the blackjackforumonline:
www.blackjackforumonline.com/w-agora/view.php?site=bjf&bn=bjf_forum&key=1223028926 ("Help needed in St. Maartin Court case").
I responded to the presentation of that legal case of gambling father and son. First off, I don't know exactly the location of that casino. Google advises St. Maarten instead of St. Maartin. I have a personal experience regarding the casinos and the law. I wrote about it extensively: Casinos Bar, Ban Winning Gamblers, Skilled Gambling Players, The Best Gambler Ion Saliu.
The law is very protective of the gambling industry for economic reasons, especially taxes. Even though the casinos in New Jersey are prohibited from discriminating against skilled players, the NJ Casino Control Commission (NJCCC) disregards their own laws!
Two alleged lawyers discussed my case in private with me (via emails). One of them had the strong opinion that the casinos cannot be beaten legally. It was mission impossible, he said. The other one warned me of the award caps. I might be awarded $300,000 and end up in debt (after a painful legal battle)! It is possible that the two "legal experts" were on the payroll of the casinos, even employees of New Jersey Casino Control Commission (NJCCC). My experience tells me now, after a decade of experience in gambling, that everything is possible. The casinos are capable of anything.
I know Nevada represents the worst-case scenario. It is reminiscent of the mob era. I was shocked to read the post of a casino chairman in my forum: Roulette Announcement and Threats by John Schroder, Chairman of MGM Grand Casino.
There is absolutely no legal ground for discrimination. You don't interfere with the game (like touching the dealer or the deck of cards) you abide by the law. Problem is, only a group of players with large amounts of money could be successful in long, painful legal battles. I just came across of a class action suit filed by some 119,000 gamblers. I also contacted a former lawyer who filed her own legal suit against casinos in NJ and Vegas. Granted, these cases deal with gambling addiction, not discrimination. But it might help to contact the ex-lawyer from New York who filed suit in New Jersey. She has a lot of info at her website:
mycasinolawsuit.com/home ("My Casino Lawsuit - HomePlease view video introduction on youtube.com").
I had never thought that cases filed on the grounds of addiction would ever succeed. The tobacco legal cases of the 1990s proved the contrary. I was a smoker and I was aware of the warning clearly printed on the cigarette packs. Nobody forced me to smoke physically speaking. It was my act of volition. I kept smoking until I decided I didn't want to smoke anymore. There were no health signs. I just decided so. The myth of that era, 1980s, was that cigarette smoking didn't do good... to the personal computers! Okay, that was the main reason I totally quit smoking in the summer of 1988, Memorial Day. I never smoked again... and never will!
But look what the casinos do. The casinos do their best (worst, in truth, evil, actually) to keep the addicted gamblers in the loop. They spot addicted gamblers, such as Arelia Taveras. The casino executives overwhelm the afflicted gamblers with all kinds of incentives to come back and lose more money. Addicted gamblers do not have knowledge or get real bad training in gambling. That's what the casinos count on. On the other hand, if you enter the casino and start gambling at the FFG point, they will rob you. They take advantage of a phantom (legal pretext) and slam you to the ground. They yell that you are a card counter they might even kill you. There are humans with heart problems!
I do not think that the casino, in your case, father and son, would be stupid to display such signs on the premises (prohibiting card counting at the blackjack tables). That would be blatantly illegal! As you say, nobody could ban the use of minds, anywhere, any time! The burden of proof is with the casinos. Who could prove in a court of law that a person counts cards? Or, are the judges mystics? What expert witnesses could read minds?
It is admitted even by the staunchest fanatics that counting cards offers no more than a 2% advantage for the blackjack player. That's a slim margin by all standards. Making bonehead plays can easily wipe out the slim, potential (illusory) 2% advantage. The casinos owe big time to all authors of card-counting books. Then, in places where it is legal to ban skilled players from the blackjack action, the casinos commit downright robbery.
I know with a high degree of certainty who those that write to me are! I include here reactions to posts like this article. It's been a decade now. I exposed them all. See the casino chairman John Schroder (most likely ex- now, at MGM Grand). He conspired with a so-called famous gambling book author. They tried first the cowardice thing, like trying to throw me in a dangerous legal situation. You know, the old bookworm Jackal (John Patrick) pretended he was 19 under the drinking and gambling age in the US. The chairman insinuated that my Web site condoned underage gambling. In truth, Jackal was in his fifties or sixties at that time (2001)!
When the cowardice act didn't work, the chairman brutally came back to earth. He threatened, in the utmost direct terms, that the casino executives have the legal right (the blessing of the law, one should say) to throw out, even arrest, system players in the casino!
Now, the truth is that Chairman and Jackal produced CD software, with big TV productions, inside a Las Vegas casino, with real casino dealers! Is that schizophrenia, or what? On one hand, Chairman and the likes toot their horns that the casinos have every legal right to ban the card counters! On the other hand, Jackal produces a big TV production sold as CDROM software where card counting is blessed! Jackal even says: "Card counting is very easy... very easy... Just do it!"
Card counting could have some merit in extremely rare situations. Say, no penetration, the deck down to around 25%; one player heads-up against the dealer. The extreme rare situation is a count extremely rich in 10 and Ace. No doubt, the dealer has the same degree of certainty to get the blackjack (natural). But the player still loses 1-to-1. But if the player gets the blessing of a natural, he/she wins 3-to-2. Who can still offer that BJ game on this planet? BJ is now multi-deck, multi-player, with penetration. Spread a +5 count (how rare that happens!) between 7 players and a dealer! Don't forget the gazillions of possible card sequences! Hello?
The casinos love to entertain this myth. Most card counting training materials sold today books, software, seminars, etc. are the conspiracy work of casinos. One must always keep in mind the Jackal productions! The card counting is falsely legal motive to commit robbery or extortion. I wrote before of the most common situations when the casinos throw out in the streets (or even arrest) a so-called card counter who already lost big. The money is deposited immediately in the casino account.
In this legal case of a lawsuit against the Hollywood casino in St. Maartin (or St. Maarten?) the casino action is even more blatantly an act of robbery. It is worse than extortion: It is point-blank robbery. A player and his son won $18,000. That's their legitimate money. They did not interfere with the game of blackjack whatsoever. Yet, the casinos take the money away from the two gamblers, by resorting to violent-street action. The father and his son (oh, heavens!) are thrown to the floor and manhandled!
If you are known as a skilled gambler and you lose big at some point they throw you out in the streets, or even arrest you if you don't abide. If you win big at some point, they stop you and they take your money violently! And the casinos have the blessing of the law! They convinced their lawmakers (crooks, most likely) that card counting is illegal. Still, the casinos sell and distribute by all means all kinds of training materials that encourage...card counting! They give you everything you want to know about card counting or how to train in counting cards at blackjack! You think you became knowledgeable in an illusion, you start counting cards at the blackjack table and the casinos rob you point-blank with the blessing of the law!
You know what really made blackjack card counting such a loud myth? It was the legal case of a revered blackjack player named Ken Uston. In my book, he was a crook, a casino mole. When I initiated my legal complaint in Atlantic City (2003), the legal advisor who worked for the Casino Control Commission revered Ken Uston! Spoke about Kenny like Kenny was a god! How come? A legal action against the casinos should be repudiated, not worshipped!
This kind of legal cases were far easier to launch and win during the cheesy era of the 1980s. There are so many more grave cases on the docket of every court of law (especially in the U.S.) these days. Discrimination cases against the casinos look frivolous. Even cases of robbery or extortion look frivolous. Even if someone took $18,000 from a father and son inside a casino, the judge throws out the case with the ruling: "The casino gorillas followed some sort of rules, didn't they? Henceforth the understanding that card counting at blackjack is illegal! BRRRRRRRRAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
The aftermath (ain't after mathematics, mind you!) Rocktober 13, 2008
Something else you might want to know, Kokodrilo (royalty addressing for big-time gambler). I published this page clearly before I even heard of a "don't'call-it-film" movie titled 21. Twenty-one means blackjack. If I don't know or don't write about blackjack then nobody does.
Usually, people refer to me publications that steal from me. As they say: "Your stuff had been publicly there for years now"...
I bought the 21 movie right away.
The film 21 was a blatant piracy of my website of stupendously great ides. They start with what mostly readers oppose: Streaks! They treat it there as the Monty Paradox. Reading it here, leads you to the clear idea that nothing can go beyond the Saliusian sets (Ion Saliu's sets). The Monte Paradox can be easily extended to far more difficult situations like many more than three doors. I encourage you get to run that incredulously great piece of probability software named Streaks. Nothing can go beyond streaks unless they badly cheat you. Guess why they banned me from that 21 forum the one conducted by Arnold Snyder, a blackjack card-counting guru (he "declared" himself bishop!)
Guess what, axiomatic one? John Schroder conspired with John "Jackal" Patrick at one time, in 2001. They had gotten together before that, and created a CDROM for all-things-gambling. I mean, the CDROM was a big TV production filmed inside a casino! If you bring a small digital camera inside the casino just a small camera they might as well arrest you!
No, they wouldn't bring you to a so-called backroom. There ain't such a room! But the 21 film wanted to convey you the strong message of a backroom. So, on one hand, they want to inspire you. You may win millions at blackjack! We, the Kasinos, beg you to come to our house, especially in Las Vegas! But, beware! We can bend the law the way we want to! We can beat you up to death, if we so decide legally speaking! Take you to that frightening backroom!
If that is NO schizophrenia I don't know what is!
I won't publish here messages and suggestions. Believe me, you'll go nowhere, if you think vigilantism works! Vigilantism does NOT work. You gotta call me when the Law can work. Don't you ever bring firearms with you in the casino! Yeah, I watched that 21 movie in dismay like you did. But, again, calm down: It is fiction!
I repeat: The 21 film is PURE fiction! The casinos are you should know it by now, after reading my site schizophrenic. They make big, huge spending, to just get you in there. But, then again, they frighten you that they can torture you to lose the last of your penny if you are a smart gambler!
The fiction in 21 you gotta look for in order to detect: Every blackjack game in the film has a positive count way above ten. It is plus 15 or above in most situations! They only explain to you that such situations might not occur in two or more lifetimes at the end of the DVD only! How convenient, John Schroder of MGM Grand Casino and John Patrick!
A good man is an axiomatic man; an axiomatic man is a happy man. Be axiomatic!
Home | Search | Help | New Writings | Software | Odds, Generator | Contents | Forums | Sitemap