Affleck, White Bans are Bad for Vegas Blackjack

Within a month of each other, Ben Affleck and Dana White essentially received bans from two prominent Las Vegas casinos. In Affleck’s case, it was a true ban from the blackjack tables because the Hard Rock kindly told him to play other casino games.

As for White, he won $2 million from the Palms Casino before they reduced his betting limits from $25,000 to $5,000. White took this as a ban – the second time that it’s happened to him – and now refuses to play at the Palms any longer.

Both of these situations seem pretty standard in the casino industry. You see an advantage player who’s winning lots of money and you prevent them from playing. But was this really the right move by the casinos?

Bad for Business

While keeping Affleck and White away from the tables may be good in the short term, this also could affect Vegas from a broader perspective. The problem is that people read these stories and think that if they win, casinos will ask them to leave. This is especially the case with White, who contends that he doesn’t count cards while playing blackjack.

Of course, the alternative doesn’t seem much more appealing to casinos either, whereby they let these players continue winning a fortune. However, it creates some bad publicity when stars are being told that they can’t play blackjack because they’re too good.

What to do instead

Here’s an alternative suggestion that the Hard Rock and Palms could’ve used, rather than creating headlines by banning or reducing betting limits. The casinos might have done well to “leak” a story to the press about how much money Affleck was winning through card counting and White was winning through whatever he does. However, they let the players finish out their sessions. Once the word is leaked, it looks like the casinos banned Affleck and reduced White’s action because this all became public knowledge.

The good thing about going this route would have been that everybody gets to hear about these stories. However, instead of having the negative connotation that both players were penalized for their skill, people think that blackjack is a beatable game.

Unfortunately, what’s done is done and it seems like the Hard Rock and Palms botched the story. But maybe other casinos will learn from their mistakes and do things differently.