Ben Affleck’s poker skills led to him being banned from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: From a promising actor to an Oscar-winning filmmaker, Ben Affleck has worn several hats throughout his career in Hollywood. The Hollywood veteran took questionable roles and his personal life somehow overshadowed his career at one point. But currently, he is gearing up to make his appearance as Batman in Ezra Miller’s ‘The Flash’.
Nowadays, the 'Live by Night' actor appears to be much more at ease with himself after marrying Jennifer Lopez and creating a new life for himself. However, before entering this stage of his life, Affleck went through a scandal-ridden period that shone the spotlight on his less than savory habits from drinking to gambling. He recently broke his movie star façade and opened up about battling his addictions and the mistakes he has made in his life.
Why was Ben Affleck banned from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino?
The ‘Justice League’ star is often seen participating in poker tournaments — he even took home $355,000 in one of them. Additionally, his victory gave him the opportunity to play in the World Poker Tour Championship. Clearly, a force to be reckoned with at the card table, it makes sense that he enjoyed hitting up casinos in his leisure time. However, not every venue was happy with Affleck winning the big prize repeatedly. Following a string of victories, the actor was banned from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in 2014. According to Hollywood Reporter, he was banned for life after casino employees accused him of "counting cards".
A source told the outlet that Affleck was in Sin City with his then-wife Jennifer Garner when guards came up to Affleck for being “too good at the game.” The insider added that despite the ban, the casino was "very nice to them". They allowed Affleck to play other games, and even ordered the couple a car. It was the same Hard Rock hotel where the ‘Air’ director reportedly won $800,000 at the blackjack tables in 2001. After the incident, Affleck was quite vocal about his complaints about how casinos reacted to his card-playing skills. He insisted he was skilled, not cheating at cards to win at the table.
‘The casinos asked me not to play blackjack’
“That is a true story. I took some time to learn the game and became a decent blackjack player. And once I became decent, the casinos asked me not to play blackjack. I mean, the fact that being good at the game is against the rules at the casinos should tell you something about casinos.” He also noted that aside from blackjack, he doesn't "gamble at all,” according to ET. "I had always liked blackjack. I don't play any other games of chance. I don't bet on football games, and I don't gamble at all, really, outside of that," he said, adding "But I knew with blackjack that there's a way you can improve your odds. And so I started trying to learn. And then I just got to a point in my life where I'm like, ‘If I'm going to do something, I'm going to try and do it really well.’ It was sort of presented like I did something illegal. You know what I mean?"