The CEO of United Airlines had a novel talent earlier than heading one of many world’s largest airways. Scott Kirby counted playing cards at blackjack tables. He stated he’s now not allowed to play the sport at most Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos.
Kirby revealed his card-counting history earlier this 12 months to the Wall Street Journal. The airline govt has been with United since 2016. He stated a couple of years in the past he visited the Bellagio throughout Super Bowl weekend to play high-stakes poker.
The on line casino knowledgeable him that he was welcome, however not on the blackjack tables. Apparently, Kirby continues to be persona non grata at some casinos.
“It’s been at least 15 years since I’ve played,” Kirby stated. “But I’m in the database.”
Counting Cards
Card counting got here into vogue after the publication of Beat the Dealer by Edward O. Thorp in 1966. The mathematician and professor developed what many think about the primary system. He proved that savvy gamers may achieve an edge on the home.
Thorpe used computer systems all through the Fifties to show his principle, testing his card counting abilities at casinos in Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas.
“I had heard that winning systems were supposed to be impossible,” he famous in his 2017 ebook, A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market. “I didn’t know why.”
Later practitioners fine-tuned Thorpe’s system, and counting groups like these at MIT have made main information and impressed movies. While card counting isn’t unlawful, casinos work laborious to cease gamers like Kirby and Thorpe from reaping earnings at their properties.
Ben Affleck was faraway from a Las Vegas on line casino for counting in 2014, and a Colorado on line casino confronted a lawsuit in 2023 over a counting controversy. High-stakes poker participant Bob Bright informed Card Player about his personal life as a counter in 2018.
FedEx Founder Saved Company At The Blackjack Table
Kirby isn’t the primary enterprise govt to have an attention-grabbing playing backstory. Fred Smith, the founding father of Federal Express, discovered his firm deeply in debt within the Seventies with simply $5,000 within the financial institution.
A $24,000 jet gas cost was due on Monday or the corporate would go bankrupt. A potential mortgage from General Dynamics didn’t materialize, so Smith took the $5,000 to Las Vegas.
“When I arrived back in Memphis on Monday morning, much to my surprise, the bank balance stood at nearly $32,000,” Smith was quoted by Roger Frock, one in every of Smith’s authentic managers, in his ebook, Changing How the World Does Business: FedEx’s Incredible Journey to Success – The Inside Story.
“I asked Fred where the funds had come from and he responded, ‘The meeting with the General Dynamics board was a bust and I knew we needed money for Monday, so I took a plane to Las Vegas and won $27,000.’”
No phrase if Smith was a card counter, however his abilities on the blackjack desk saved the corporate. By 1976, FedEx posted $71 million in income and right now has a market capitalization of greater than $73 billion. Smith handed away in 2025 at age 80.
