Don Johnson — no relation to the Miami Vice actor from the 80’s – is the CEO at a Wyoming company that makes online horse race betting software. He took $6 million in one night from the Atlantic City Tropicana casino. Not long before, he hit Caesars for $4 million and the Borgata for $5 million.
And he did it all playing blackjack.
A couple of years ago, says Johnson, several cash strapped casinos started getting desperate to secure more high limit players. In their zeal, it is reported that some in Atlantic City offered high limit players up to a 20% discount on their losses. This means that for every $100 lost at the tables, the casino would return $20. Offers like this were unheard of in Atlantic City in the past and those who had mastered the game and were in the position to take advantage of it did.
Johnson figured out how to drive the house edge even lower. Through tough negotiations, he convinced the casinos to offer him the most liberal rules possible (see Resources – Casino Rules & Conditions). He won’t say what all the conditions were in the final e-mailed agreement with the Tropicana, but Johnson and the casino management finally agreed, he had whittled the house edge down to one-fourth of 1 percent, by his calculations. In effect, he was playing a 50-50 game against the house, and with the discount, he was risking only 80 cents of every dollar he played. He had to pony up $1 million of his own money to start,while other casinos refused to let him play, the Tropicana limited his hands to $100,000.
But how did he clean them out for 6 million in 12 hours?
Although Johnson, had been playing blackjack since the 1990’s and had won several million, he was considered a green pea in Atlantic City, and went fairly unnoticed. At the Tropicana, he reportedly played one hand of blackjack per minute, which raised suspicion from surveillance cameras that he was cheating or counting cards. However, his streak was investigated by officials in Atlantic City and they deemed he was not cheating but has beaten the casinos fair and square, in the words of the Atlantic, by studying the game before setting foot in a casino.
What has dumbfounded skeptics is that it wasn’t card counting that helped Johnson win, but rather basic blackjack strategy, and a large enough bankroll to survive the variance swings. He was quoted as saying, “They (casinos) beat most people in the long run because the average person won’t have the bankroll – but I have my own bankroll. If you can take the swings, you’re going to win. You also have to understand the math.”
According to Tropicana CEO Mark Giannantonio, Johnson’s winnings at the Tropicana set back the casino in its monthly profits for April 2011, placing Trop at the second lowest slot of the 11 casinos in Atlantic City in terms of revenue. Giannantonio was subsequebtly fired.
Will any casino in the world ever allow Don to set foot in their establishment again?
After a $15,000,000 winning streak in 6 months that remains to be seen, but my money says, “No way, Jose!”
If you would like to beat the dealer without counting cards, checkout The Easy Money Blackjack System™.
***************************************************
By the way, I've played at many of the TOP RATED online casinos on the net, and I can say that BOVADA'S LIVE BLACKJACK games offer the best surrender games in the industry.
Their payouts are fast and their customer support is top notch. They make make it easy to make Bitcoin and all major credit card deposits.
Sign up for free or take advantage of their amazing welcome bonuses currently over $3K! click the link >> BOVADA BONUSES
Or play one of their 8 FREE blackjack software DEMO GAMES (after the redirect, just close the pop-up sign-up & select a game) link >> DEMO BLACKJACK GAMES
*Disclaimer - I do receive a commission if you decide to deposit and play with real money.
Publicity stunts just cost more these days, that’s all.
Come on Jeffry, 6 million dollars of advertising and comps will bring in many more people than a 6 million dollar loss story. Unless, you believe Mr. Johnson was in on it and he’s kicking back some of that 6 mill, but I seriously doubt it. A casino’s reputation is too valuable and travels fast over the net these days.
I clicked on this post thinking this story was about the actor on the 80’s show, “Miami Vice.” I love to read about the winners .. Anyhow, excellent site!
I didn’t know that casinos are willing to negotiate the rules for high stakes players. Thanks for sharing!