Ben Affleck is a card counter, and he wants the world to know there’s nothing wrong with it — even if casinos ask him to leave because of it.
The “Gone Girl” star spoke to Details to promote the David Fincher thriller, and ended up clearing the air about headlines that popped up last spring after he was caught counting cards during a blackjack game at a Las Vegas casino.
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“That is a true story,” Affleck said. “I mean, that took place. 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.”
Affleck — a noted poker player — said he learned the legal skill, albeit highly frowned upon by casino security, after becoming “sort of obsessive” over blackjack, which is one of the few casino “games of chance” he’s willing to take a gamble on.
“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,’” Affleck said. “It was sort of presented like I did something illegal. You know what I mean?”
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Affleck, who will portray Bruce Wayne and the billionaire’s crime fighting alter ego Batman when “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” hits theaters in 2016, said the situation wasn’t as dramatic as the media tried to sell it.
Security simply told him not to play any more blackjack at the casino, and did not physically toss him out, which Affleck thinks would have been substantially more “awesome.”
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The actor, director, writer and producer wants to “correct the impression that there’s something wrong with” how he gambles and how often he gambles, and especially wants the public to know that tabloid reports of it affecting his marriage to Jennifer Garner are “all bullshit.”
“They completely lie. I mean, I can show you 10 articles of Star and OK!–those magazines feel totally comfortable absolutely fictionalizing every single element of the story. And there’s nothing you can do about that,” Affleck said. “My only hope is that people with any common sense recognize that those stories are false. And, I don’t know, there’re worse stories.”
