So how viable is playing blackjack as a career in 2010? Personally I think it is at least very difficult….if not impossible to do so full-time. Well strictly speaking of course, nothing is impossible. But the automatic shuffling machines and the electronic blackjack machines are killing the game as a revenue stream for skilled counters in the UK.
Skilled card counters will soon be like card mechanics…….a dying breed. With games involving automatic shufflers then I can still see the game as a revenue stream if players are prepared to cheat but continually cheating is difficult to get away with.
On roulette, top hatters and past posters have very short life spans because firstly they have to travel from club to club. This means having to go into casinos where the staff do not know you and execute moves that have large payouts. Even if you get out of the door with the money, the management will scrutinise the CCTV and deduce that you were cheating.
You will thus be marked and with the sophistication of their computer systems and signing in process, it will be difficult for you to get back in. Your information will be passed around the company and even from company to company. Successful counters (and that is even presuming that you find a game) will then have the problem of winning amounts of money that would keep you as a way of life.
I can only see blackjack being a part time income now at best or even nothing more than an interest. This certainly applies to the UK where the preponderance of automatic shufflers is tightening the net even further in where players can play blackjack and card count.
Very few people know that when I ran my team in 1998-2002 that I also had other forms of employment as well and it was far easier then than it is now. I could get our team into numerous casinos with four deck shoe games and six deck is OK too as long as you have other tactics working for you besides counting.
As a career……..sorry but no!
See you soon
Carl
