New Jersey: The One State Where Counters Cannot Be Barred
Updated
New Jersey is the exception to the American rule. In 1982 its Supreme Court held that a licensed casino may not exclude a player for counting cards — the only ruling of its kind in the United States. What it did not do is make counting comfortable there.
- Uston v. Resorts International Hotel (1982) — counters cannot be excluded.
- The reasoning: game rules are the regulator’s business, not the casino’s.
- Casinos responded with countermeasures instead — which are permitted.
- Devices remain illegal here as everywhere.
What the court decided
Ken Uston, a professional counter and the most public advocate for counting at the time, was physically ejected from Resorts International in Atlantic City and sued.
In Uston v. Resorts International Hotel, Inc., 445 A.2d 370 (N.J. 1982), the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously in his favor. Its reasoning had two parts. First, licensed casinos do not have the common-law right to exclude patrons for conduct that is not cheating. Second — and this is the part that made it stick — the Casino Control Act gives the Casino Control Commission exclusive authority over the rules of licensed games, including how they may be played. A casino excluding counters would be setting its own rule, which is not its to set.
What it did not change
The ruling stopped exclusion. It did not stop countermeasures, and the Commission subsequently permitted a range of them.
So a counter in Atlantic City cannot be barred for counting — but can meet shallower penetration, shuffling at the house’s discretion, restrictions on mid-shoe entry that block Wonging, and lowered table limits that cap a bet spread.
Every one of those attacks the arithmetic rather than the person, and together they can make a table not worth playing while the player remains entirely welcome to sit at it.
What remains illegal
Devices. New Jersey, like Nevada, treats using any electronic or mechanical aid to gain an advantage as a criminal matter rather than a house-policy one. The Uston ruling protects counting with your own head, and nothing else.
It also applies only to licensed casinos in New Jersey. It is not a national precedent, and other states have declined to follow it. Nevada takes the opposite view.
Keep reading
By Martin Kosek · every number on this site is computed by us, not copied.
← Back to guides