During the early 1950’s the majority of casinos were using a single deck for blackjack games. In was not uncommon for them to play every card in the deck, and at the time it was the only normal way to play the game. The casinos simply didn’t know any other way. They didn’t at the time understand that playing with only one deck of cards can actually make it possible to conquer the game.
The skill of Card counting was originally identified by a number of very intelligent gamblers at the end of the 50’s, and despite the fact that casinos didn’t even realize it straight away, the technique had damaged the profitability of the casino as a business. Casinos at the time had been checking for obvious cheating methods such as card marking, but card counting was so new and so secretive that it wasn’t an incredibly well-known method until quite some time later. Apart from being fairly unknown, casinos were simply not concerned about it in the early stages. Computers just weren’t widespread during those times, therefore it was difficult to determine what the actual impact of card counting was. Casinos believed they would continue to have the house edge and they didn’t think any system could possibly be winning in the long run.
Communities of people that did possess the expertise required for card counting cherished that information and tried to never reveal it with the world. If the knowledge become too wide-spread, casinos might begin to ban the practice. They would spend days playing in casinos using the card counting techniques, and because casinos did not have cameras of computerised monitoring systems at the time, they were blissfully unaware of how much money they were losing. They had absolutely no method of keeping tabs on the card counters.
In 1965 however things changed. A book detailing the card counting method was published, describing how to be successful at blackjack by counting cards. The publication contained specific, computer-produced calculations. The drawback, however, was that if a normal person can read the book, you can certainly expect the casinos to. Because the casinos couldn’t outright ban the practice, they began to take measures to make card counting as hard as possible. Slowly but sure the game of blackjack began to transform into the game we now know and love.
Multiple decks began to replace the single deck, and casinos stopped playing every card in the deck. The harder they could make the card counting technique, the better. It wasn’t only the game itself which evolved, the security surrounding the game was improved as well. Casinos have become much better at spotting cheats, with even the smallest gaming floors now packed with cameras and experts watching your every move.
Blackjack specialist Ace Ten added their perspective to the record, stating it wasn’t merely card counting which caused casinos to alter the way blackjack casino games are played. The constant evolution of technology meant it was almost certainly an inevitability that the game would have changed over time to counteract casino losses. Not only this, but overseeing casino games has become much easier in modern times.