Don Johnson

Don Johnson

Don Johnson is best known to pro gamblers as the man who beat three Atlantic City casinos out of $15 million in a six-month period in 2011. He beat Tropicana for $6 million, Borgata for $5 million and Caesars for $4 million.

Precisely how he accomplished this feat is not known. It is known that he played at very high stakes, $100,000 per hand at blackjack, and that he’d convinced each of these casinos to agree to giving him loss rebate deals, whereby he would be reimbursed for 20% of his losses when the house beat him.

It is ludicrous that these casinos had agreed to reimburse Johnson on his losing sessions, and continued to do so for months as he was cleaning their clocks on his winning sessions. Obviously, he had them convinced that he was just another dumb gambler who was experiencing a lucky streak and that they would inevitably get all their money back and then some. Except, it didn’t work out that way. He just kept winning.

Unlike most of the Blackjack Hall of Famers, Don Johnson did not begin his gambling career as a card counter in the casinos. Prior to his blackjack exploits, Johnson was a horseracing enthusiast and had a job managing racetracks. He ultimately worked as a state regulator of racetracks in four different states. Yet somehow, Johnson convinced the Atlantic City casinos that he was a gambling dummy.

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