BLACKJACK ON THE BOARDWALK: ATLANTIC CITY

When Resorts initially opened in Atlantic City, three first-rate counters playing the Hi-Opt II (slightly more powerful than the Hi-Opt I) lost over sixty thousand dollars in less than three weeks, counting and signaling each other for the proper plays as a team., They were shuffled up on at both the twenty-five-dollar-minimum and one-hundred-dollar-minimum tables. They also swear they were cheated, but don't know how. I personally saw no sign of 'any cheating. I won two hundred dollars, but my trip cost four hundred dollars. Just as easily I could have lost two hundred dollars, so the results weren't too conclusive. I didn't need any further proof to play somewhere else.

Since my early visit to Atlantic City, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission has been thrashing around about the way the casinos may handle counters. After allowing the casinos to officially bar counters in January '79, the Commission continued to consider allowing counters to play. Then in October '79 the Commission ordered the Atlantic City casinos to allow counters to play unmolested as of December 1.

The Commission also permitted the casinos to institute coun-termeasures to minimize the risk in letting counters play. The ca-sinos could reshuffle after dealing out only half the cards, and could shuffle upon seeing certain jumps in betting or upon seeing someone enter the game with a large opening bet.

As you will see in Chapter Seven, these all thwart a counter tracking the cards and betting more in favorable situations. By December 14, 1979, the casinos had documented that counters still had an advantage (despite several counters' protests to the contrary) and were once again allowed to bar any Blackjack card counters they could de-tect.

This is the way it currently stands in Atlantic City. Identifiable counters are quickly barred. Winners for any reason are watched closely and countermeasures quickly taken regardless of the reasons for the win. It is still a problem of supply and demand. Once the casinos must start competing for players by offering bet-ter games (as in Las Vegas), then the player will have a better chance of finding a worthwhile game.

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