"Card counters going online" - LVSun

[zengrifter]

Many card counters going online, experts say
By Ed Vogel | L.V. Sun

Gamblers who used to excel at blackjack through card counting have turned to sports betting and Internet gaming as casinos wised up to their strategies, gaming experts said Friday.

"The casinos have gotten more sophisticated and the advantage players have had to make their livings on Internet play," said Max Rubin, a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame and developer of CBS' coming Ultimate Blackjack Tour.

I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in Los Angeles who has written extensively on gaming, added: "Blackjack is diminishing."

But he said there are people earning $100,000 and more a year gambling on the Internet who never bet in casinos.

Both said skillful Internet players can find errors in odds offered on the hundreds of Internet gambling sites. They suggested players look for cash bonuses offered by some Web sites.

"There are games that can be beaten legitimately," Rose said.

Rubin noted a player could be guaranteed of winning by betting the Vikings over the Packers on Tuesday on one sports betting site that offers bonus dollars and then betting the Packers over the Vikings on another sports site on Wednesday.

They made their comments during one of the final sessions of the 13th International Gambling & Risk Taking Conference at Harrah's Lake Tahoe.

But Semyon Dukach, the leader of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology card-counting team that won $10 million playing blackjack in Las Vegas, maintained blackjack "is not quite dead."

He said blackjack will experience a growth spurt because the game is attracting many new younger players.

"You don't have to be a genius (to win at blackjack)," he said.