Blackjack Card Counter Continues to Fight Casino Ban

Blackjack player Thomas Donovan is back in court fighting for his right to play blackjack and count cards at Grand Victoria Casino and Resort in Indiana. The casino banned Donovan in 2006 when they discovered he was using card counting strategies to consistently beat the casino’s blackjack games.

Tom Donovan, a retired computer programmer, claims to have won around $65,000 at blackjack since 1999.

“I’m not cheating at all. It’s just using my brain,” Donovan said. Even the casino admits that Donovan did nothing wrong.

Donovan sued the Grand Victoria Casino and Resort after it banned him from the blackjack table in 2006. The casino won the suit in a Marion County court, but the state appeals court reversed that decision and the casino asked the high court to weigh in.

For decades card counting has been a subject of controversy. There’s no law forbidding card counting, but it’s no secret that casinos are against it.

Many casinos use special security systems to detect potential card counters, and then ban the player based on that assumption. The Griffin Agency founded in 1967 is most famous for its system of spotting card counters. Founder Robert Griffin created the Griffin Books, a series of profiles on suspected card counters. Griffin has since put the information online in a large database that casinos can purchase access to.

Further Reading
Indiana Court Hears Casino Card-Counting Case
Donovan vs. Grand Victoria Casino – Court Documents