Modern Blackjack nth Edition

We have all seen it before, casinos have long attempted to call Blackjack card counters crooks, cheats, thieves, etc. Card counting is simply the correct way to play. Why would anyone purposely ignore the cards that have been played? You certainly wouldn’t ignore the cards in Bridge or Gin. But, their campaign has been effective as can be seen by those repeating the casino libel. I thought I’d start a list of the offenses:

• November 2007, KLAS TV Las Vegas said the MIT counters “stole” money from the casinos and reported that two MIT blackjack card counters admitted that they “cheated.”
  
  
• September 2003, NBC Las Vegas TV show blurb referred to “card-counting cheaters”
  
  
• August 2002, MSNBC did a piece from Las Vegas on the aftermath of 9/11. Reporter Ashleigh Banfield did an extended piece on facial recognition. The report stated that facial recogition was moving from use against “corrupt card counters” to fight the war on terror. Further, there was an implication from one of her guest speakers (from Visaage) said that the “cheaters” database (including “corrupt card counters”) is contained within the database used at airports for terrorist screening. “In a post-9/11 world, the software that’s been helpful at safeguarding against a corrupt card counter could be the key to safeguarding against much more.”
  
  
• January 2002, an article in the Las Vegas Review interviewed Douglas Florence, head of security at the Stratosphere. The article states: “Over the last 26 years, Douglas Florence Sr. stopped counters, flimflam men, stickup artists, gangsters and others who dream of separating local casinos from their money the old fashioned way — by stealing it.”
  
  
• April 2005, Commercials for the “Breaking Vegas” DVD said: “See how they beat the casinos by not playing fair,” lumping card counters with cheats.
  
  
• July 2004, Yahoo’s description of the rules of BJ includes “Please note: Yahoo! considers counting cards as cheating. The information has been included to help you identify card counters.”
  
  
• May 2004, A Portland, Oregon television show described Biometrica as “a database of 12,000 known cheaters,” even though it contains many players who simply play well.
  
  
• 2009, an Australian TV show, “Today Tonight,” lum\ped card counters in with cheats and pickpockets.
  
  
• November 2006, Jennifer Leah Strong in Electrical Contractor Magazine wrote: “Casinos have to closely monitor players who may be trying to cheat the system. Some ways in which a thief can threaten gaming integrity are card counting and pinlight devices that trigger credits in a video machine without inserting actual money. Cheating is a big revenue loss to casinos, and video surveillance helps protect against it.”
  

If anyone has additional references, I’ll be happy to add them.