So although we were trained to spot card counting, it wasn’t considered an issue as long as the players were losing. Players sometimes tried card counting, but the fact is, it’s pretty tricky to make a success of it. Membership was granted to such a select few that staff often outnumbered players by about ten to one, so there was no chance of a rogue group of con artists slipping in and getting a card counting scam going. In one casino I worked in, the main gaming floor offered just two roulette tables, and two card tables – only one of which was blackjack. A bunch of chancers working together would have stood out a mile in a small private members’ club in London.

Had I seen the film, and was it really like that? Actually no. In the story (billed as non-fiction, but possibly embellished) the students work as a team, with some taking the role of 'spotters' who place the minimum bet and keep track of the count, while others take on the role of big players who come over and place large bets when the spotters send them a signal that the count is in the players’ favour. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, was followed by 21, a 2008 film adaptation starring Kevin Spacey as the Svengali behind the students’ Vegas trips. Mazrich’s 2002 book, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. The notoriety of this form of cheating is probably due at least in part to Ben Mazrich’s bestselling account of a group of card counting students who won millions in Vegas.

“Have you ever caught anyone card counting?” As a croupier, working in London’s high end casinos, this was one of the questions I was asked most – often by people who’d never been to a casino, who wouldn’t even know how to play blackjack.

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