Counting cards online: a waste of time or an underrated opportunity?

An objective comparison of online and offline play based on personal experience and real data.

Introduction

Card counting in blackjack is the textbook example of advantage play. Movies have been made about it including 21 and Breaking Vegas. Dozens of books have been written. The field has its own heroes and legends. The MIT Blackjack Team took millions off casinos in the 1990s. Ken Uston went to court and won the right to count cards. Edward Thorp proved in 1962 that it works and he did it with real money. Training schools exist to this day and some professionals still believe the skill is relevant.

When people talk about card counting they almost always mean offline play. Online blackjack is dismissed as pointless and unprofitable. I hear this constantly from AP players in private conversations and on forums and Reddit. Even Richard Munchkin, a legend of advantage play, calls online blackjack a waste of time. Colin Jones, founder of a major blackjack school, has a dedicated video on his YouTube channel explaining in detail why online counting does not work.

Here the Reddit user at least does not deny that counting is possible.

Ironically I spent a non trivial amount of time and effort counting cards online. I did not walk away with a million but my total profit ended up in six figures. I do not regret a single hour spent on it. If something makes money and you enjoy the process I do not see how it can be a waste of time.

The real question is different. Offline blackjack could have made me more money in the same number of hours. But there are nuances people rarely mention or do not know when they make broad statements about online card counting.