Indiana Ruling for Card Counting Causes Casinos to Pout

Casino operators in Indiana are claiming foul over a court ruling saying players caught counting cards at blackjack cannot be barred from returning.

Although card-counting in blackjack is not illegal in the US, most casino operators spend significant time and money identifying potential counters and refusing them the privilege of gambling. However, a decision by an Indiana court that a casino can't expel a customer for counting cards has an industry used to having everything its way in an uproar.

Land-based casinos watch blackjack tables carefully, looking for any hints that players are actually using their brains to gamble. Any sign of trying to win, within the rules, other than hoping that luck defeats the house edge, can result in a quick expulsion.

But an appeals court overturned Marion Superior Court Judge Robyn Moberly's ruling that the Grand Victoria Casino in Rising Sun, Indiana, could bar Thomas Donovan, after employees observed him counting cards. The Indiana Court of Appeals said there is no law against card-counting.

Now, gaming experts are saying Indiana will lose revenue if the decision is not reversed by the state Supreme Court. Such noted gambling insiders as William Eadington of the University of Nevada-Reno say that, without the ability to deny counters, Indiana casinos will have to alter blackjack rules, making the game less attractive and likely to drive patrons out of state.

What the casinos are saying is that, if patrons are given even the slimmest, most difficult chance to balance the odds slightly in their favor, gambling rules must be shifted to make sure that there is no real hope of winning. Is that a position gambling companies want to publicize?