For those who aren't familiar with the name, Ken Uston would probably have described himself as the King of Card Counting. By others, he was referred to as the "Master of Blackjack" and was named "Blackjack Player of the Century" by Blackjack Confidential magazine.
What's true is that Uston was the most vociferous and flamboyant of players, a master of disguise, a talented jazz pianist, a computer game wizard, and the author of 15 books, including Million Dollar Blackjack, The Big Player, and Ken Uston on Blackjack, plus his own "Uston Advanced Point Count."
He was a highly intelligent and colorful individual (with the ego to match) who gave the casinos a serious run for their money, both at the tables and in the courtroom, beating them out of several million dollars in the '70s and '80s, back when a million was still really worth something.
Ken Uston was born in 1935 and demonstrated a propensity for achievement early in life. He won a scholarship to Yale at the tender age of sixteen and went on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School; by the age of 31, he was a senior vice president of the Pacific Stock Exchange. That's where he became interested in blackjack, thanks to the works of Ed Thorp and Lawrence Revere, eventually quitting the world of high finance to pursue a career as a professional blackjack player.
He used concealed computers before they were outlawed and helped perfect team play and the so-called "Big Player" concept, whereby clandestine counters signaled in the guy (or gal) with the money, who placed the big bets only when the deck was favorable, only to lurch off, cocktail in hand, leaving the pit none the wiser as to what had just happened. In January 1979, Uston and his team beat Resorts International, then the only casino in Atlantic City, out of $145,000 [more than $400K in today's dollars] in 9½ days.
When the casinos fought back against skilled players, Uston took them on. In 1982, he won a historic case at the Supreme Court level that forbade New Jersey's then and future casinos from barring card counters. (Although they responded by introducing measures to make the game essentially uncountable, it was a potent moral victory.) A similar attack on the casinos of Las Vegas failed, however, succeeding only in increasing the number of his enemies, both within the industry and among other players, who felt that Uston's notoriety and appearances on high-profile shows like "60 Minutes" was making it harder for anyone to earn a living playing blackjack.
In 1985 he accepted a job working undercover for South Africa's Sun City Casinos and discovered why they were losing money. He was then hired as a consultant by the government of Kuwait, advising them on a computer system to monitor their immense global-investment portfolio. He enjoyed the job, but hated the lifestyle restrictions of a Middle Eastern Arab country, and when political circumstances forced him to leave, Uston took refuge in the more liberal arms of Paris. It was there, on Sept. 19, 1987, aged 52, that he was found dead in his rented apartment.
The French police did no investigation into his death, since no foul play was suspected; the cause of death was announced as a heart attack. Uston's body was cremated without an autopsy being performed. Those who knew him well suspected that his fast lifestyle and fondness for women, alcohol, and recreational drugs (be it cocaine or, as some sources hypothesize, a psychedelic called DPT), had finally caught up with him.
If those present at the scene suspected no foul play, why the uncertainty today? Although he wasn't moving directly in their circles at that point, Ken Uston had made a lot of powerful enemies during his life. Certain treasured personal items, including a gold medallion from the Las Vegas Jockey Club and a collection of $500 and $1,000 bills, were missing and never recovered, which led his family to question the events immediately leading up to his death. The fact that no autopsy was performed leads to inevitable speculation about questions that can never be answered. And people love conspiracy theories. But natural causes remain the most likely explanation for his death.
