Kenneth Senzo Usui (Ken Uston) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Kenneth Senzo Usui January 12, 1935 New York City |
| Died | September 19, 1987 (aged 52) Paris, France |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Professional gambler, writer |
| Spouse | Betty[1] |
| Children | 3[1] |
Ken Uston (January 12, 1935 – September 19, 1987) was an American blackjack player, strategist and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team play at blackjack.[2] During the early to mid-1970s he gained widespread notoriety for perfecting techniques to do team card counting in numerous casinos worldwide, earning millions of dollars from the casinos, with some bets as high as $12,000 on a single hand.
He was banned from casinos around the world and would adopt various costumes in order to conceal his identity and still be able to play.[3] He filed a high-profile lawsuit against these casinos and successfully received a ruling from the New Jersey courts that absent a valid New Jersey Casino Commission regulation excluding card counters, casinos could not ban someone simply for counting cards at blackjack. In response, many casinos changed their systems, increasing the number of decks in games or changing rules to increase the house edge.
In the early 1980s, Uston also authored several popular books on video games and personal computers. He was the subject of a 1981 segment on 60 Minutes and in 2005, he was the subject of the History Channel documentary, "The Blackjack Man".[3][4]
- ^ a b Biography on Ken Uston's Blackjack World – The Official Ken Uston Web Site
- ^ Stanford Wong (1982). Basic Blackjack. p. 17.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
bigplayerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sarah Crump (5 May 2005). "History Channel gives a hand to late local card counter". The Plain Dealer.