So you are wondering, can casinos beat you up? Despite what you may have heard about seedy altercations between casinos and card counters, it’s against the law for anyone, including casino employees, to physically assault a card counter or any other visitor to the casino.
If for whatever reason, a casino security guard causes harm, by hitting, smacking, shoving, shaking, sealing you in a room, strapping you to a chair, or anything of that nature, as long as you hadn’t been too provocative, they’re breaking the law.
For this reason, beating someone up – actually physically, violently, punching and beating a person and injuring them in the process is not something that a casino would ever do. With that being said, there are stories of lawsuits against casinos for injuries sustained during an ejection, but these are often not more than an accidentally sprained wrist, which can happen to any rowdy gambler.
Can Casinos Really Beat People Up?
Casinos do not have to intimidate people to get them to stop coming into their establishments. Especially, in casino hubs like Las Vegas and Atlantic city. The most staff can do in the vast majority of cases is an ejection in a non-physical way. Casinos do not beat up gamblers because, if they did, they would face legal backlash. As well as the legal costs, the casino would face a public relations fiasco, the likes of which have never been seen before.
The idea that a casino would beat people up is based mainly on rumours and fiction that can easily get out of hand, especially in a booze-fuelled casino. The truth is that the worst physical treatment that a person caught card counting or cheater can expect is that they are forcefully ejected from the casino, which can only happen if they’re being difficult when approached at the table.
This can be avoided and is not meant to cause harm, but only to get the player off of the premises if they’re being stubborn or unreasonable. Most casinos won’t touch the player, as long as they’re cooperative when approached by the staff.
Is 21 a True Story?
21, was a famous blockbuster released in 2008 about a team of blackjack card counters that can acquire a huge sum from a casino using their mathematical formulas learnt at college. What is lesser known about the film, is that it is based on real-life events, specifically the MIT Blackjack team. Formed in the 1980s, they were able to pull off huge winnings against casinos over decades, all over the USA. They play blackjack tables and count cards; despite anti-card counting rules.
The extent to which the movie accurately portrays the journey of real-life MIT student and hopeful medic Jeff Ma, who is renamed Ben Campbell in the film does not go very far. Jeff’s college aspirations, the MIT team and their success are about as far as the truth goes. The famous interrogation back room scene involving the casino security chief has been the base of many rumours about casino security and it’s important to remember that this part was for dramatic effect, and certainly didn’t happen.
The polite and calm approach of the casino floor security before this scene is the only realistic aspect of this sequence. Following this, the security chief accuses him of counting cards and walks him to an abandoned warehouse, where he punches him up until he’s bloody.
This beat-down scene shows a bloody protagonist tied to a chair and being punched and tortured with knuckledusters. The scene is like one out of a Tarantino movie and even though it’s cool to think that these real-life anti-heroes had real-life villains to overcome, in reality, no casino would ever give you such a hard time, no matter how much you won.
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Conclusion
In most cases, legal and licensed casinos will not beat up their customers even if they are caught counting cards, which might have cost the casino lots of money. It is too much of a lawsuit and reputational nightmare. Movies only include these scenes of struggle for dramatic effects. However, do conduct yourself with decorum if you are being escorted off the premises.