Thank You For a Great 2018 National Blackjack Day!

Our 3rd year of celebrating National Blackjack Day March 2nd was yet another stellar experience thanks to the support from players and casinos everywhere. 

Below are 8 great examples of the amazing content including live coverage on Fox5 Las Vegas, a new cocktail, themed casino events, and more. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our goal is to bring awareness to the best casino game in the world and recognize those casinos that still pay 3:2 for a blackjack.  This year we exceeded expectations in both areas thanks to your support.

See all the images, links, and video on Twitter @BlackjackDay

We look forward to creating more great experiences with all of you in 2019!

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Welcome to National Blackjack Day 2018!

March 2nd is a great day!  3:2 is the perfect day to celebrate and play blackjack at your favorite casino.

This year has seen a lot of change in the gaming industry with big name disgraces, major new casino openings, more regional options, casino closings, eSports booming, skill games floundering, and Vegas booming yet showing signs of consumer pushback based on perceived value.

All of these things and more are going on around the industry and yet really all we want to do is enjoy our favorite casino game.

This day was chosen to raise awareness of the fact that casinos are moving the odds as far away from the players’ favor as possible and we want to continue to implore owners to make the games we love a good value for everyone.  It is also meant to be a celebration of the game itself.  We want to encourage as many people to play blackjack as possible while learning the rules and odds to make it more enjoyable for everyone.

We applaud the players and casinos who are making efforts to keep everyone engaged in the conversation around favorable odds and growing the interest in the game.  We’ve seen casinos like the D and The Cromwell in Vegas continue 3:2 blackjack payouts while many of their rivals push 6:5 payouts and other less favorable rules.  Regional casinos continue to play with mainly favorable rules, however pressure from corporate and political forces to earn every additional dollar still create risk for future changes.

So what do we do?

It pretty simple really.  On March 2nd, grab your friends, maybe a cold beverage, and head out to the casino for a session of 3 to 2 blackjack on Friday, March 2nd to celebrate.

Good luck and have fun!

 

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A New Blackjack World Record Will Have to Wait Until Next Year

For National Blackjack Day 2018 we sent a petition to the Guinness World Record people for an event on March 2nd at The D Casino to set and establish a new blackjack related world record.  We received the response from Guinness last week after a 3-month wait and at first, it looked good.  The email said that our application was approved.

The team at the D was excited to host us and we were starting to pull together a plan.  Unfortunately, when we dug into the details the Guinness folks assigned our attempt to the wrong category which made completing the record essentially impossible.  We have appealed the decision and Derek Stevens from the D offered to assist with the application process if it would be helpful, which we greatly appreciate.

At this late a date it will be too late to complete the record in 2018 so we will keep pressing the committee to see if we can bring this home in 2019.  Unfortunately, this was our main focus for 2018 so hopefully, the casinos and players will rally their organic support this year while we work to create a memorable event in 2019.

We appreciate your continued support and look forward to seeing you at the tables on March 2nd for National Blackjack Day on 3:2!

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The World Championship of Blackjack – Let’s Make This Happen

I recently watched YouTube videos from the 2010 World Series of Blackjack and it made me curious about how we might bring an updated version to life.  I’ve personally never played in a casino blackjack tournament, but from what I’ve seen they don’t resemble actual blackjack play so we’d suggest handling this like the World Series of Poker and encourage aligning the game as closely to live casino blackjack as possible.  We’d eliminate gimmicks. remove the artificial playing conditions and of course pay 3:2 for blackjack!

Let’s talk some specifics around how this might work.

  1. Multiple games to attract different playing styles with options for single-deck, double-deck and 6-deck shoe.
  2. Buy-in gets all players equal amount of chips
  3. Table rules would be favorable with splits, 3:2, Dealer stay on S17, etc
  4. Levels with minimum bet limits rising every X minutes
  5. Compete against your table and the entire field to progress towards a final-table
  6. Winner is determined once all other players are eliminated

This seems fairly straightforward, I’m not sure how well it plays on TV, will have to check with the PokerGO team to see what their audience says about blackjack.  I believe we’d set-up regional tournaments that start in the winter – maybe they run from December to February across the country and the we hold the finals in Las Vegas at the D on March 2nd for National Blackjack Day.

This is a working plan, your input is welcome and appreciated.  If we, the blackjack players, build this from the ground up we can develop a quality product that will generate excitement for players and casual viewers.  Please provide your comments and we’ll keep working to make this a reality in the coming months and years.

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National Blackjack Day 2017 Recap

2017 was the 2nd full year of National Blackjack festivities and we had some great traction!

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The feature shown above on the marquee at The D Las Vegas was the favorite example of the day, but it wasn’t the only highlight.  We are starting to see momentum for National Blackjack Day across the country with players and casinos.  Sure, this post is self-serving, but it is a great way to review the day and set the tone for future growth.

The casino community did step up this year and show some love.  Derek Stevens and The D (and Golden Gate) were by far the most vocal and supportive with tweets and a Periscope showing their marquee touting Blackjack Day and their year-round 3:2 blackjack policy.  In addition to The D we heard from casinos in 7 other states: 4 Bears in North Dakota, Graton in NoCal, Harrahs SoCal, Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa, Foxwoods CT, Potowatamie in WI, Horseshoe Tunica, and Horseshoe Baltimore.  The Downtown Las Vegas Alliance also chimed in.  We’ll keep the drumbeat going to get more casinos involved in years to come.

Of course, most of the feedback came from players who came out in force to play and support the cause on 3:2.  I was lucky enough to be interviewed on High Roller Radio leading into 3:2 and the support continued throughout the day.  There are too many supporters to thank here, but you can see the Twitter feed with everyone and I’ll give a few shout-outs to our Tweeps including Vegas Fanboy, Faces and Aces, Chips Racks, DSK, Wall Street Nole, Vegas Aces, Brian Moore, Cool Hand Luke, 2 Way Hard 8, Lucky45, and even the UNLV special collections account.

So where do we go from here?   The first step is to keep the conversation going so we can spread the word as far as possible.  We will do that through this blog and our Twitter account @blackjackday  The next step is planning for National Blackjack Day 2018.  We have some ideas to help take this to the next level and we welcome any feedback or suggestions you have.

Thank you for the support and good luck at the tables!

 

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National Blackjack Day Featured on High Roller Radio

More good momentum for National Blackjack Day this week.  Check out the coverage on High Roller Radio with an interview about #NationalBlackjackDay and the related casino experience.

The last question in the conversation was ‘How should we celebrate National Blackjack Day’.  That is a great question and as a fan of the game the best advice is to get out to your local casino and play some live blackjack at a casino that pays 3:2.

If you have a moment take a listen and then get out there and play some blackjack on March 2nd!

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12,000 Blackjack Tables in the U.S.

I’m curious about the entire gaming industry, not just because I’m a blackjack player, but also as a marketer and gaming fan.  One question I ask myself frequently when I’m playing is how many blackjack tables exist either at their casino or in a certain market.

Luckily UNLV Gaming does an amazing job of quantifying in Nevada gaming which makes it easy to keep track of Las Vegas.  It is harder to find numbers across the U.S. and with the growth and change in the industry these numbers are constantly in flux.  Recently I ran across the number 23,783 from World Casino Directory for the total number of table games in the U.S.  I can’t verify this number (at least not immediately, but will keep working)

If we take this number at face value and apply the UNLV numbers for Nevada which show that blackjack is about half of all table games then we get to roughly 12,000 total blackjack tables in the U.S.  I’ll keep working to verify this number, but it feels like a reasonable estimate based on the data I could find in a quick search.

I’ll keep working to find validation for these numbers and anyone who has access to more current or specific data please feel free to correct my estimate.

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National Blackjack Day is March 2nd

March 2nd – 3:2 – was chosen for a very specific reason.  As I, and many other players and industry watchers smarter than me, have been highlighting in recent years more and more casinos are moving away from 3:2 payouts for blackjack and moving to 6:5.  This trend is taking money out of players hands, tilting the odds even further to the house, and eroding the game from it’s once dominant position to just another table on casino floors.

Obviously this isn’t nearly as critical as cancer research, memorializing national heroes, or acknowledging some of the more critical causes that have their own dedicated days.  That being said, if no one stands up and let’s the casino operators know that players are paying attention then we would expect this trend to continue unchecked until the 6:5 payout becomes the norm rather than the exception.

This simple gesture is a way to join the cause and start making a case to the casino companies that 3:2 blackjack is the standard we expect.

Join the movement and celebrate National Blackjack Day on March 2nd #BlackjackDay by playing 3:2 blackjack, sharing your love of the game, and calling on the casino companies to keep 3:2 blackjack tables!

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