Blackjack is definitely one of the most popular card games in both land-based and online casinos, but one of the main reason for that is that there are many strategies to increase your success. One of the strategies that are widely accepted both by players and casinos includes studying and applying the blackjack strategy chart, which tells players what to play in most of the situations. If you follow the chart, you could minimize the house edge and have fun along the way.

However, this is not the only thing that helps players who like blackjack. In fact, there is this black-hat technique which is often discussed among blackjack lovers, and it is called card counting.

What Is Card Counting?
It is an advanced blackjack strategy that uses math so that the players could count the probability of the upcoming hands. By applying this strategy, players not only decrease the house edge but sometimes even gain the edge over casinos. The risk and luck factor are minimized here, but they are not completely excluded and still play an important role. Now, this is an advanced technique that cannot really be explained in one short text, so we will not discuss it further as that is not the primary topic of this article. In fact, we are interested more in the legality of it.

Is Card Counting Illegal?
Casinos strictly forbid any kind of cheating techniques, but the truth is that card counting isn’t exactly cheating per se as players play according to the rules and only use math to gain an advantage. In other words, it is a sort of flaw in the game that is somewhat exploited by the players and as such cannot be welcomed by casinos.

Therefore, to answer the topic question — no, card counting is not illegal, and you can do it. However, casinos legally have the power to ask the players to stop playing blackjack if they notice that they are counting cards.

In the end, counting cards doesn’t really pay off, especially not in online casinos where such behavior is easy to notice and simply ban players from playing. Instead, you should stick to the blackjack strategy charts and have fun, leaving something up to chance. After all, blackjack is not only a game of skill but a game of chance as well, and luck plays an important role here. Make sure to check out sites that review blackjack casinos and games in order to play the best blackjack games on the web.