About Ken Uston

Ken Uston was one of the most avid advantage blackjack players("card counters" win for sure in the long run from the casinos courtesy of odds in their favor by mentally keeping track of the cards played) to ever be seen in the casino world. His blackjack career quickly became a legend. Since giving up his senior position as a Senior Vice President of the Pacific Stock exchange, having degrees from Yale and Harvard, Ken quickly achieved both admiration and hate from casino bosses and fellow card counters alike as he had his own ideas how to "go about business", challenging major casinos both on the blackjack tables and in court rooms as casinos tried to bar him and other card counters from playing their blackjack games. It was him who beat the Atlantic City casinos into submission and to this day his court victory allows anyone counting cards to play openly and undisturbed in New Jersey.

Always resourceful and persistent, Ken swept through the casinos even when they tried to bar him, cosmetically disguising himself and inventing some hilarious characters along the way. His legal team was combating the casinos in their attempts to persuade the gaming comission that card counting was nothing but cheating. He was beaten and threatened several times and generally treated without the constraint found in today's litigious society and 'corporate' Las Vegas. Ken's game was big money and casinos weren't about to just give it up easily.

"THE BIG PLAYER" chronicles Ken's journey into professional blackjack from his introduction to the game while still a 9-to-5er at the Pacific Stock Exchange to becoming a driven and flamboyant professional player and team organizer in the Las Vegas of the 70s and early 80s. Please contact e g i n b h at y a h o o . c o m for more info...

Ken Uston 80s Media Coverage

NATIONAL TELEVISION SHOW APPEARENCES
    60 Minutes
    The Today Show
    Good Morning America
    David Hartman Special (shown)
    BBC Television Special
MAJOR MAGAZINE FEATURED ARTICLES
    Time
    Sports Illustrated
    Money
    Newsweek
    New York Times Magazine
    People Magazine
    US Magazine
    Fortune
    Playboy
MAJOR NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
    New York Times
    The Wall Street Journal
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Philadelphia Enquirer
    London Daily Express
    Washington Post
    San Francisco Examiner
    Los Angeles Times
    Los Angeles Herald Tribune
    International Herald Tribune
Some examples of some Ken Uston disquises
(From the December 1996 Atlantic City Magazine)

This is a scanned photo from that same issue of some of the various disguises Ken used. "Ken Uston was a master of disguises and created several personas that he played to perfection...."