When the Blackjack Hall of Fame debuted at San Diego’s Barona Casino in 2003, one of the seven inaugural inductees was Kenneth Senzo Uston (1935-1987). For many years, he was one of the biggest names in blackjack, the leader of multimillion-dollar card counting teams and author of some of the most popular books on the game ever written.
Uston’s rise to fame did not come easily, however. Nor was it a straight path. En route to his ultimate acclaim, the son of immigrants had to endure some painful and difficult times, not the least of which involved a court case that would ultimately change the very way that blackjack is played in casinos around the world.
Prologue for a Prodigy
Uston was born Kenneth Senzo Usui in New York City, the eldest of three children raised by Japanese businessman Senzo Usui and his wife Elsie Lubitz, a native of Austria. By the time the boy was three, it was clear that he was a prodigy, not for cards, however, but for the piano. He just sat down one day and played. Later it was learned that “Kenny” had a high IQ. He gained numerous honors and successes in school, while excelling at sports and games of skill.
During World War II, Kenny’s father was confined briefly at the American-Japanese internment camp on Ellis Island. Following his release, the family was not allowed to own a radio or a camera, and Kenny was taunted by children who called him a “dirty little Jap.” Eventually, the future blackjack great would change his surname to Uston, but not until after graduating from Yale in 1955 with a degree in Economics and then Harvard with an MBA in Finance. He also served eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve, reaching the rank of second lieutenant.
In the 1960s, Ken Uston was well on his way toward achieving the American Dream. He married his college sweetheart, and they had two daughters. Rising up the ranks of the business world, Uston took an executive position with the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange in San Francisco and then became President/CEO of the Pacific Clearing Corporation. By the time his son was born in 1970, Uston’s life was a success by any standard, but something was missing. His heart wasn’t in it. He longed to escape the corporate world and “find himself.”
The Turn to Blackjack
A chance meeting at a party with a professional gambler named Al Francesco introduced the disenchanted executive to the concept of card counting. Uston began studying blackjack on his lunch hours. He read Edward O. Thorpe’s “Beat the Dealer” and began spending time in casinos. Francesco was forming a blackjack team and invited the novice to join him. That’s where Uston learned the intricacies of being “The Big Player,” which would become the title of his first book, published in 1977.
Of course, the Stock Exchange was not happy with Uston’s growing notoriety at the tables. Nor was Francesco happy with the revelation of all his trade secrets in print. That’s when Uston decided to strike out on his own and pursue playing blackjack full-time, just as gambling became legal in Atlantic City in 1978. He set up a blackjack team of his own in New Jersey and it quickly met with success.
In fact, Uston became a real threat to casinos. In less than ten days of play in January 1979, his team beat Resorts International in Atlantic City for $145,000. In response, the casino ejected him and his crew from their tables, saying card counting was cheating, and the New Jersey Casino Control Commission agreed. But Uston fought back. He sued the Commission, and after an expensive three-year battle, the State Supreme Court finally ruled in 1982 that “barring card counters was illegal.”
Still an Important Influence
To this day, New Jersey casinos—by statute—are not allowed to bar card counters. So instead, they began changing the rules of the game, adding decks, moving shuffle points up and frequently changing dealers to thwart players trying to gain an advantage. Meanwhile, Uston’s second book, “Million Dollar Blackjack,” came out in 1981, describing exactly how gamblers can consistently win at the tables.
To avoid being singled out for “special treatment,” Uston began wearing disguises. He would dress up as a blue collar worker or a musician, to evade surveillance systems and get seated at the tables. He began disguising his card counting methods, and he played in other countries, too. But blackjack was becoming a dangerous business. One week he won $100,000 at the tables in the Bahamas, but it cost him a broken jaw and a narrow escape with his life.
Uston spent the rest of his short life writing books on computers and video gaming, consulting for casinos and governments, playing piano and looking over his shoulder—he wrote that he “had made some enemies … I fear for my life, always checking behind me.” When he died at age 52 in a hotel room in Paris, France, an autopsy was performed, but it was determined that there was no foul play and he died from heart failure.
Yet the spirit of Ken Uston lives on. He inspired Tommy Hyland to organize blackjack teams and challenge inhospitable casinos in court. He helped inventor Keith Taft to perfect his blackjack gadgets and impressed 12-year-old James Grosjean to grow up and become a Blackjack Hall of Famer. Even Johnny Chang’s famed MIT blackjack team owes Uston a lot for their success. The card counter’s legacy lives on.