2009 these two kids are on a mission a mission to . outsmart the casinos make millions of dollars and then use it for good these casinos are are like they just prey on people they destroy local communities it's the ultimate Underdog , scenario but they don't believe in taking risks and they know they're playing a dangerous , game we were scared to go into that casino even though we were doing legally playing the , game they offered with our brains this is a true story that actually happened happed a , story that started in a church several years earlier the year is 2005 and in Seattle two , friends a waiter and a substitute math teacher are in their mid-20s they've mastered the art of card counting it began when one of them read about the game in a book called how to make $100,000 a . year gambling they took me about 5 minutes to read and I said hey I could do that it's an appealing . Prospect given their current hourly rates here's how it works the aim in blackjack is to build a hand as close close possible to 21 and better than the dealer without going over any player , who beats the dealer without busting wins now he should be a 50-50 contest a game of skill between player and the casino but the casinos tweak the rules so that the dealer has an edge a good card counter can eliminate that edge and stack the game in their favor by keeping track of . which cards have been dealt and betting with the system with the help of simulation software and , countless hours of practice they soon learn it's an obsession to sharpen their skills and train , their brain to perform calculations Under Pressure they even add up license plate numbers whenever . they drive but the two friends Ben Crawford and Colin Jones have an additional secret weapon , their Network because they met at bible camp and now they're respected amongst multiple Church . groups now naturally at first the talk of gambling doesn't go down well there's this whole thing of , like oh well gambling's a sin like show me what you're talking about in the Bible it says like , a fool and his money will soon be parted but Colin explains to them counting cards isn't really , gambling it's using math to make money money that will go a long way in supporting their community and their young families comparing the potential returns to his daily rate as a substitute teacher . it's a no-brainer before long friends from the church group want in to it's a pivotal moment . because Colin and Ben are thinking bigger their plan is to build a huge card counting operation effectively franchising up the process to start they train up their first batch of training get them to memorize strategy charts and before long the duo has become a small team the church , team is a team with a Clear Vision to rinse the casinos all across America for as much money as , possible the only question is can this strategy really work from top to bottom the strategy , has a full business plan and here's how the structure will work at the top there's Colin a substitute math teacher who loves numbers and Ben a waiter with an entrepreneurial streak below them is a regional manager controlling players out in the midwest Mark treace the managers will seek out investors close family and friends from the church who will then provide the bet in . bank roll they guarantee nothing but show them two charts past performance and a conservative estimate of future potential in the first few weeks they have a bank roll of half a million . dollar then they give the money to the players they've trained many of whom like themselves are . investors they'll then take their action to the casinos count cards at blackjack tables and win , lots of money the players get paid a flat rate for their time but the managers set a team Target of , a $100,000 profit once the target is reached it's time to celebrate they call this closing a bank roll every quarter managers players and investors all come together from across the country paying for their own air fars for a general meeting and bankroll dinner where the profits are then divided . up and shared out it's serious stuff now they'll be playing with other people's money There's , No Going Back fortunately the first round of investment couldn't have come at a better time . because just as the church team's first batch of card counters are ready Ben and Colin go on a , horrific losing streak they lose $120,000 in one trip to Vegas $86,000 of it was lost to the Hard Rock alone but this is part of the game they're playing it's why they need a large bankrupt within . weeks variant swings back in their favor and their strategy is making money Ben and Collin spend , their time tallying Exel charts of winnings and figuring out how to distribute them some . investors including family friends and players who all met through the church invest hard when , they started Colin stepfather was appalled now he invests $200,000 others take out loans it's an exciting time as they grow $100,000 into $300,000 in 2 months and before long there's $1.5 million , in the pot it is literally a huge Gamble and it's a gamble a company built entirely on trust in 2007 the church team takes a whopping 1.58 million off of the casinos the players are carrying around ,

more cash than they know what to do with some strap it to their legs to get through airport security who will always assume that they're drug dealers others keep it in their glove compartment or at the back of a bookshelf one player misplaces $10,000 he eventually finds the cash inside his . sofa on another occasion $110,000 cash is seized by TSA on the Detroit Canada Border creating cash , flow problems it takes 3 months and hundreds of pages worth of paperwork to recover it they start , making a movie Holy Rollers the true story of card counting Christians it will show how their faith , remains Central but it's also time to get serious to set some rules and make sure things are done right they establish Advantage play LLC as an official business for the team requiring members , to play a minimum of 20 hours a month store cash in a bolted down fireproof safe and give honest . answers if apprehended by security or law enforcement but whilst too much money is a nice . problem to have there is however a nastier one when the players step inside a casino they take a deep breath and try not to look up because there all around them are people in several different roles whose whole job is to make sure they don't win because winning is what the casinos do if a player starts doing it regularly they'll quickly get shut down they give the impression through all of their advertising that it's a place for Fun and for winning but then you go inside and anyone that has a chance of winning they'll remove from their property so the dealer reports to The Pit Boss and , the Pit Boss reports to the Cino manager as do the surveillance and security teams once enough red , flags have been raised they'll send a backoff guy to invite the person off of the premises now , most card counters aren't looking for trouble they don't want to be remembered so they'll always leave quietly a couple of intimidating incidents have their cars marked in specific , casinos like the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino they would they would force you to go in a back room they would cuff you to a bench they'd take all your money out they'd intimidate you and then , you know eventually they'd give you they'd cash out your chips and walk you out we were scared , to go into that casino even though we were doing legally playing the game they offered with our brains but then the problem is where to play next there are only so many casinos so the church team , get creative out come the disguises The Geek The Goth the seek the drunk Rich Kid the trucker and , the cowboy team member David jewy dresses like a fanatical Republican pensioner it explains why I have a lot of money and it explains why I'm really bad at tipping and people don't want to . talk to me either so that's an added bonus the managers show how it's done with Colin's approach very different from Ben's I think I realize the difference between Ben and I is when I dress up . for a casino my goal is to blend in and when Ben dresses up for a casino his goal is to stick out the casino raised their game I think they've been the most creative team and even though you're . changing appearance there's still things about you and if you look like the guy we think you are we'll start checking for tattoos we'll start watching the play and we're all over it so . however to the church team the sky is the limit the team expands the friends invite their friends , there are 30 investors and 40 players in Seattle Cincinnati California New York Oregon and Nevada . most have arrived through the church and while some remain happy player Dusty Warne says after every hand I won I said thank you Jesus others like Mark TR are having doubts originally I came . from a a very conservative Christian background I was told you know don't cuss don't have sex don't gamble don't shoot somebody like you'll be a good person there's just so much to do Ben and Colin Focus only on admin and gradually Fortune start to change for the worst betting big can mean big . losses sometimes up to $100,000 in a session but what matters is your balance at the end of , the year here it can be easy then to miss a downward Trend but when the whole team crashes to month after month losses it's clear there's an issue its causes though are a mystery the . church team is built around trust so Ben and Collin refuse to believe that anyone's stealing . one player Jason is performing especially bad so they retest his card counting skills following . their findings they wonder if a bigger problem is a play you see the church team uses a relatively , simple high low counting system which works like this players assign plus one to low cards and , minus one to high cards and keep a running count when the count is high it means more low cards have been played so more High cards are yet to come so they increase their bets as the , odds are in their favor when the count is low they take a back seat to minimize losses because . the odds favor the dealer card counting systems are designed to give the player an advantage but , they also assume that the player understands and can play the game just as well as a dealer in a ly . they want to believe there's a problem with their strategy but in reality it's nothing to do with . it the team's rapid expansion has become a problem a problem that's reduced the team's overall .

Edge it wasn't the card counting system that was the problem it was the skill of the players , and us trying to turn a card counting team into you know McDonald's and franchise it out into this , massive operation that just doesn't uh it doesn't work many Church team players like Jason who they , let go do not have the ability Ben and Colin call an emergency meeting they've allowed the team to . grow too fast and drop the ball when it comes to training people up and maintain its standards and . now Colin lays it all on the line and so we're like oh this team's awesome it's Unstoppable and . then it took 10 months of us just thinking oh well we're just having a bad run of things and now 10 months later it's like nope it's definitely not a bad run of things if the team goes on this way for , very long it's inevitable that we'll go bankrupt extra players are recruited some from outside the church based on their Blackjack skill alone immediately they've reaped the benefit the team takes $140,000 from the casinos in 3 weeks it is though a false Victory the losses return and . so do Ben and Collins's doubts they know that team members could be making up some of those . losing numbers and say that they' played for hours when really they hadn't even played the whole team faces rigorous retesting they head to the Emerald Queen Casino in Washington state . to do just that and it's a disaster as five fail miserably pressure is mounting and the team are $465,000 down Colin run some simulations and works out that the bad plays have cost them $4 million . theoretically in the last year and a half that is if it is just bad plays because statistically that , doesn't seem possible having experienced extreme success just a while ago everybody is disappointed internally the group is starting to fragment in an attempt to make sense of their losses some , people are starting to point the finger at others around 25% of the team are not Christian which . isn't a problem for the majority but Brad Kura one of the team's longest running and most devout , members expresses concerns about stealing he wants certain members of the team particularly those who , aren't Christian When Brad is asked to explain he replies the Holy Spirit told me sometimes when . I pray the Holy Spirit tells me things Ben and Colin don't know what to believe although one thing is clear the team is lacking trust and camaraderie when you're dealing with a million , dollars of friends and family money you know you got to you got to trust everybody's got to trust , each other it's a tough call to make but they cut the team size further it's now a Titanic Group . of Seven card counters Mark meanwhile is making another plan I cannot live on Blackjack and say , what I'm doing is a worthy Pursuit a righteous or a full Pursuit I think man was meant to experience . something way way more tangible and simple than just robbing casinos and making a bunch of money and getting awesome cops his heart just isn't in it anymore the excitement has gone and in the , background a new project is taken off he leaves the team so by 2009 Ben and Colin have studied the . ship now they need to get out of the boardroom and back at the table in Vegas to put the church team back into the black armed with $50,000 is all on this a symbolic journey to end up on top with . one more more bankroll they arrive nervous it's been a long time since they're at the coace since . they were responsible and it's tough tougher than they remember after 2 hours Colin is down $24,000 , their first night is a disaster and Ben is reeling you know one of the worst case scenario is you . spent this whole weekend and you lose money it's like U maybe it would have been better if I just , stayed home and I would have spent time with my family and got a bunch of stuff done and had more , fun they study their charts they go again by the end of the weekend they've won back their $50,000 . and made an extra $155,000 it's a great result but for the church team is the start of the end with . three daughters a wife and a significant amount of money behind him Colin's motivations are evolving , family is really what matters now the reality has set in scaling the team is incredibly difficult as . he's continually beating the casino when they know exactly who you are we did we did fine but those , players they run out of places to play you know guys that could go and play 40 hours in 4 days in , Vegas are now getting 5 hours in 4 days in Vegas 2 years later the church team officially plays . their last hand upon final collection a couple of players don't have all of their bank roll one , individual comes up $20,000 short however over 5 years the church team have won $3.2 million all , while regularly attending church and leading youth groups investors earned an average 35% . return on their money with Colin's father-in-law banking $100,000 in profit they've beat the . stock market by 500% Mark trees sets up a high school Tutoring company and bers shes an internet startup Colin Jones now runs Blackjack appren ship a dedicated app and online training camp showing . how anyone can count cards and raise their all round blackjack game please check out this video . here where he teaches card counting on his channel

The Christian Kids Who Outsmarted America's Casinos