Griffin Investigations Company
The greatest force against blackjack card counters for the last 30 years has been the Griffin Investigations Company. Beverly and Robert Griffin founded the company in 1967 and were funded mainly by the gambling industry. This company was the leader in biometric algorithm security surveillance systems, and provided reports on known blackjack card counters and cheats. The famous Griffin books were essentially the blacklist for known blackjack card counters and advantage players.
The company consisted of over 100 private investigators who maintained a vast network spanning casinos all over the world. Updates were shared several times a month, keeping every casino up to date on the new advantage players. The company also maintains dossiers on jackpot winners and anyone suspected to have some sort of edge on the house.
The company came to fame by taking down Ken Uston’s blackjack team. Uston was spotted talking to his team outside a Vegas Casino, and the Griffins were able to recognize the team from the blacklist. Before that none of the team members were connected to Uston, and the discovery obliterated the team. The company also played a role in catching the MIT blackjack card counting team.
Despite all the success the company has declared bankruptcy. Too many lawsuits have depleted the company’s funds; a result of strong-arm tactics the company was famous for using. There has also been a strong opinion that the very expensive security systems exceed the amount of money that would have been lost to the small number of card counters that exist.
