On Ben Affleck and his reported “gambling issues.”
Ben Affleck made a huge splash yesterday, somehow getting himself banned by a Las Vegas casino from playing blackjack.
That’s a pretty cool story, which puts the actor into a special class among his fellow gamblers. Getting banned for card counting isn’t a disgrace so much as a badge of honor. Of course, banning also means getting caught. But this is a daily hazard of the gambling trade. Every gambler who tries to beat the house and appears to be successful at it catches heat. Getting banned is basically the casino’s way of saying, “you’re too good….we don’t want your action.” Not too many players are good enough to get banned in Las Vegas. [See Footnote]
In case you missed the news, Affleck is now reportedly “banned for life” from the Hard Rock Casino. That’s a staggering penalty, usually dished out only to those suspected of cheating. Initially, I thought the Hard Rock might be doing this for publicity’s sake, which certainly worked. His banning is a bold-print headline at every mainstream media outlet, this morning.
However, if true that would be a ridiculously shortsighted view of things. The free publicity of having celebrities like Affleck playing inside your casino likely outweighs the risk of him being an advantage player. Most businesses, including casinos, pay celebrities huge endorsement and appearance fees. What can be better publicity than having Affleck at your establishment, not as a paid shill to collect an easy paycheck, but on his own time, having fun? Having someone of Affleck’s statue sitting the pit playing a game, when he could be comped anywhere else in the world, stands a major coup for those in the PR business.
I admit that I don’t quite understand the appeal of playing blackjack. I’ve dabbled in it a bit, especially when I was younger. But I was never good enough to count cards properly, or get myself banned. Few players are. So, I admire Affleck’s intellectual prowess and personal discipline which was sufficiently dangerous enough to master something quite difficult. I’m also envious of the huge sums he’s alleged to have won over the years at the tables. According to sources, the actor once raked in a whopping $800,000 playing blackjack. That’s a major score, by any definition.
But now that game appears to be over. The cards have been dealt. The shoe is empty. So what’s Affleck’s next move?
Well, aside from continuing to direct films and star in movies — a few of which have turned out to be pretty good — case in point: Best Picture Oscar winner Argo — Affleck apparently continues to enjoy visiting casinos and gambling in his free time. However, his options on the casino floor now appear to be limited. He could certainly go and play blackjack somewhere else the next time he visits Las Vegas. But you can be sure that if he was watched before this latest incident, now whatever decision he makes at the table will be closely scrutinized. How fun can it be having to constantly dodge the heat, worrying about getting yanked from the casino floor in the middle of a hot streak?
That leaves Affleck only one option — and that’s poker.
Forget blackjack, Ben. Come back to poker.
For Affleck, poker is quite a familiar territory. Ten years ago, his poker playing made headlines of a similar nature. At the time, he was dating actress-singer Jennifer Lopez. Some speculated that Affleck spent so much time playing poker that the celebrity couple’s relationship suffered, and eventually cracked apart because of it. Who knows if that’s true? Fact is, Affleck played a lot of poker in the period from 2003 until about 2007. He even won a major tournament, called the California State Poker Championship.
Affleck was around the poker scene so much that it wasn’t even a big deal for him to be inside the cardroom. He attended major tournaments, appeared at the WSOP and on the WPT, and reportedly was a regular in a few high-stakes cash games, mostly with the elite Hollywood crowd. Affleck also played online poker, which ultimately caused the rift from which he still holds a grudge (rightfully so, I might add).
Sadly, Affleck fell in with the wrong crowd. He was a magnet for scumbags who sought to shine in the spotlight of his fame. After a while, Affleck must have taken a much closer look at himself and seen those attached to him for what they really were — leeches. He was reportedly scammed by some poker players, although those details are unsubstantiated. I happen to believe they’re true because of my sources, but won’t use any of the names or tell any stories because all that’s second-hand information.
What we can agree on is Affleck didn’t just walk away from poker. He ran away from poker in a full sprint. Poof, he was gone.
So, what caused such a sudden departure?
As I said before, Affleck made the mistake of hanging out with phonies who weren’t really his friends. Too bad he didn’t just try to be one of the guys at the table. I think he would have enjoyed the game a lot more had he behaved like the rest of us. He would have come away with a much more favorable impression of the game by being one of us, instead of famous celebrity Ben Affleck.
Instead, Affleck remained (and perhaps still remains) bitter about what happened to him in poker. He wanted revenge and got it — albeit in a payback that now seems more symbolic than substantial. He was one of the driving forces behind an abysmal movie called Runner Runner, a scathing fictionalized account of the online poker industry. Fortunately, the movie was a total bomb and made no impact whatsoever in the current debate about online poker’s legalization. But Affleck’s attachment to the film and his comments during last summer’s publicity tour wasn’t favorable to the game.
Well, it’s not too late for redemption. We’re all evolving, all the time. Since Affleck pretty much stopped playing poker several years ago, the game has changed quite a lot. Some of the scumbags who made poker an unpleasant memory are now gone from the game and hopefully won’t be back. So this is a perfect time for Affleck to come back to poker, and give it another try. Blackjack, so one-dimensional, can’t be nearly as interesting as sitting at a table with other players and coming up with a solution to a poker puzzle. That’s what every poker decision is — solving a puzzle.
I’ve met Affleck three times. However, I would never claim to know him. I have no idea what motivates him to sit in a casino and play blackjack, and before that, sit at a poker table and play cards. But I suspect it’s not the money. I believe it has something to do with the inherent challenges the game presents and testing oneself by playing the best. Affleck has already met similar challenges by becoming a successful actor and director. He met those challenges winning two Oscars. He met those challenges by getting banned from playing blackjack. Competing and winning is apparently in Affleck’s DNA.
If Las Vegas and the allure of casinos are in Affleck’s future, poker should be a big part of it. It’s the only game left that provides innumerable challenges and such a myriad of possibilities.
Come back to poker, Ben. All is forgiven.
Late Postscript: On Sunday, May 5, 2014, another story broke reporting that the Hard Rock Casino denies barring Affleck. That now puts the original TMZ report as suspect.
Footnote — When Edward O. Thorpe wrote and released Beat the Dealer in the early 1960s, casinos feared that card counting might kill blackjack. The opposite occurred. The book became a national best-seller, but typical blackjack players who tried to employ the strategy weren’t knowledgeable enough nor were they properly disciplined to gain a mathematical advantage over the house. Casinos eventually came to the conclusion that Beat the Dealer was the best thing to ever happen to blackjack, boosting the game’s popularity, and generating more profits for the house.
Photo Credit: CBS News