oh how i loved the internweb casinos
The wife convinced me to try this a couple years ago.

Deposit $100 in some dodgy online casino, and they'll give you $100 to match your deposit. Some give more, some give less. The catch is, you have to wage $1000 or more, depending on the casino.

The idea is that if you play blackjack by the book, you should be able to take that $200, and walk out with about $190, clearing $90 in bonus money.

We must have hit 90% of the online casinos, and over a period of a year, we easily earned $5000. $3000 of that as from cards.

One night, the wife deposited money into a casino, thinking she could play cards. As it turned out, it was a 'slot' only casino. So, she went to put the boy to bed, I sat down, made a couple spins, and won $1200 on one spin. We quickly cashed out.

Later, at another dodgey casino, we deposited our $100, made a couple bucks, and withdrew out cash (we used Net Teller at the time). We received the $100 and some, but also a transfer for $1000. I've no idea where that money came from, or why, and apparently these sorts of operations do not spend much on paying qualified accountants. I certainly didn't question where the money came from, and figured, if some kind gentlemen want to inquire all the way from Gibralter, I'd be happy to return their money.

Doesn't work as well nowadays, as it's a lot harder to transfer money to these casinos from the States... It's not illegal to gamble, it's just illegal to transfer money to the casinos... bastards... also, while you may only have to wager $2000, typically casinos only count each dollar betted on blackjack as 1/10th or less of a dollar.

Consequentially, I now know every instance of when I should double, split, stay, and hit.
( Foxglove -- it all ends in tears anyway..., Sat 9 May 2009, 4:00, 2 replies)

how do they stop you
counting cards?
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Sat 9 May 2009, 6:42, closed)

Wikipedia (bless it)
says that some online casinos randomise the deck after each hand, so you can't card count. [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_counting ]

I watched a wonderful edition of Horizon all about enterprising mathematicians card counting. The best you get now is Prof Brian Cox (your name rocks) road tripping around the US.
( monkeybananaraffle, Sat 9 May 2009, 12:17, closed)