Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Ben Affleck admits to getting in trouble for counting cards

Ben Affleck

Mary Godleski / AP

Actor Ben Affleck plays a hand of poker during The Showdown at the Sands, a $1 million poker tournament, at the Sands Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J., Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003.

Ben Affleck knows how to count cards at blackjack and he's gotten in trouble for doing it in a casino, the actor admitted in an interview in Details magazine's October issue.

Various outlets reported in May that Affleck had been banned from blackjack at Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

In the interview, Affleck confirms that he "got good" at the game but doesn't mention the Hard Rock specifically.

"I took some time to learn the game and became a decent blackjack player," he said "And once I became decent, the casinos asked me not to play blackjack."

He wasn't escorted out of the casino, as some outlets reported. Casino staff just told him he would have to choose another game.

"I wish I could say they were afraid of me in every capacity, but they only said, 'No blackjack,'" he told Details.

While counting cards is not illegal, casinos frown upon the practice and bar card counters from playing.

Read the full interview here.

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