Griffin Investigations vs.
The Blackjack Card Counters
During the 1970s, shortly after Ken Uston's book, "The Big Player," was published, teams of card-counting blackjack players took casinos by storm. At first, the casinos didn't catch on, but eventually, after losing millions, they cottoned to the teams' wily ways and they decided that something had to be done. Unable to nab and disarm the blackjack card-counting teams on their own, casino owners turned to the Griffin Investigations agency. Griffin became the teams' arch nemesis… and vice versa.
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The Founding of Griffin Investigations
The founding of Griffin Investigations predated these blackjack teams. The company was opened by Robert and Beverly Griffin in 1967. At that point in blackjack history, the casinos were challenged mostly by small-time cheaters who fixed the games by loading dice or marking cards. Within a few years, however, the casinos shifted their focus to the blackjack teams, comprised of card counters who worked in tandem and often in disguise. Card counting was a hugely successful blackjack strategy, and the card-counting teams won tons of money at the blackjack tables. Card counting was not illegal, but it did put a serious dent in the casinos' profits. The casino owners didn't like that, and they turned to Griffin Investigations for help.
Because casinos are privately owned they have a right to ban any players they want. The Griffin Agency helped weed out card counters and many team players were subsequently barred from the tables. Card counters, particularly those that worked as part of a team, were hard to detect. The big teams of the 1970s and 80s were playing with big money and their methods were sophisticated and ingenious. The Griffin Agency had to be just as determined and just as smart to catch the cards counters - each became the bane of the other's existence.
The Teams and the Agency Fought Head to Head
| The Griffin operatives were no slouches and they fought fire with fire. They compiled the famous/infamous "Griffin Book," which was a photo album of suspected card counters, and copies of these books were circulated by Griffin to the casinos that had hired them. The success of the agency was legendary and the results were swift; at one point almost half of the Vegas casinos used Griffin to catch card counters, who were subsequently harassed, thrown out, questioned, and banned from future play in the casinos. |
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Along with other achievements, Griffin was responsible for bringing the renowned MIT Blackjack Team to its knees in the 1990s. By the end, Griffin had photos, names, and numbers of all the prominent members of the MIT Team, which closed the book - the Griffin Book - on the MIT chapter in blackjack history.
The Blackjack Players Strike Back
Ben Mezrich's book, "Bringing Down the House," tells about the adventures of this group of card-counting students, and it also tells how the Griffin agency brought about the group's demise. Ultimately, however, Griffin Investigations over-stepped its bounds and irate gamblers sued the agency for false allegations. Legal fees and losses led to bankruptcy and, a few years ago, the agency filed Chapter 11. Nonetheless, history will never forget the great rivalry between Griffin Investigations and the blackjack card counters - the Griffin Book lives on.
