This Thursday evening, our guest on Gambling with an Edge radio show will be Colin Jones from the Holy Rollers blackjack team. In preparation for the interview, I watched the DVD Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card-Counting Christians.
The story centers around Ben Crawford and Colin Jones, two Christian men from Seattle who learned to successfully count cards and then decided to turn it into a business by recruiting other Christians to do the same. The team had considerable success — and the inevitable gambling highs and lows. Then came a long period where the team lost a lot of money. During that time, Ben and Colin tried to figure out whether it was because their counters weren’t trained well enough or whether one or more of the counters were ripping them off.
Without revealing exactly what they concluded and what they did about it (otherwise there might be no reason for you to watch the video), there were a number of issues they dealt with that are common to all gamblers — including video poker players.
COMMITMENT: There was the level of commitment required to learn the necessary skills. Ben and Colin possessed those skills and taught them to others. But a certain percentage of the team didn’t share their commitment. Once these counters passed the initial test they didn’t keep practicing. Over time, their skills eroded.
TRAVELING: If you win in casinos you’ll be kicked out. Sometimes you can get back in. Sometimes you can’t. This particular team was aggressive and got kicked out regularly — often from the same casinos that kicked them out previously. To survive in this environment, you need to continue to move and play in casinos all over the country. For anybody who isn’t able or willing to do a lot of traveling, you can’t play this aggressively.
CASH: The more you play big stakes the more you get immune to carrying around large sums of cash.
LOSING STREAKS: You will definitely go on losing streaks. Each of the team members interviewed cited losses in the range of approximately $50,000 in one day. Some folks don’t play for stakes where such losses are possible, but for whatever stakes you play, there will be months where it all goes south.
TRUST: How can you ever be sure someone else is acting responsibly with your money?
PARTNERSHIPS: Forming and dissolving partnerships is as tricky in the gambling business as it is in every other business.
BACKROOMING: When casinos restrict you from playing, it isn’t always gentle. One casino manager, Ken Reed of the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, CA, told the camera that he has never backroomed any card counter. A printed message on the screen said that three members of the team had been restrained in a back room against their will. You’re left with the impression that this particular manager was sleazy and couldn’t be trusted.
This group used investors — usually family and church members — to fund their gambling bankroll. When the team was winning and the money came rolling in, everybody was ecstatic. Whatever moral dilemma church members may have had seemed to be washed away by the rate of return. Church members who could ill afford it put mortgages on their homes to help fund the team. When the team was losing, most of the investors didn’t understand that this was a normal part of gambling. Telling people who believe in you that you’ve lost a large part of their investment is never comfortable.
A group of Christian card counters has additional challenges that most of us don’t need to face. There will be many who find playing in casinos to be a very un-Christian-like activity. These guys had to have this same conversation over and over again with lots of different people. (Personally, I give them a pass on this. Card counting is using your brain to play a game well. I don’t find that either godly or ungodly.)
It’s possible that a group of Christian card counters has advantages that most of us don’t have. These guys trusted each other — partly based on their shared religious beliefs. How justified that trust was, I can’t say.
For anybody actively trying to win at gambling — whether at blackjack or video poker — this DVD is worth watching. Some lessons can’t be repeated too many times. The DVD may be ordered from their website www.blackjackapprenticeship.com.
Gambling with an Edge airs live every Thursday evening from 7-8 p.m. Vegas time on local station 1230 AM. Over the internet it is streamed live at www.klav1230am.com. The day following the airing, a free podcast of the show is archived on bobdancer.com.