Most casinos use multi-deck shoes (so multiple decks of cards in one stack which they deal from). Your counting advantage increases as the shoe gets smaller (m

Most casinos use multi-deck shoes (so multiple decks of cards in one stack which they deal from). Your counting advantage increases as the shoe gets smaller (more cards played, more history, more knowledge of odds of face cards remaining in the shoe). Casinos will shuffle all the cards before you have a significant knowledge advantage. They may adjust their shuffle point based on whether they detect a counter. If there are no counters at the table, then it's more efficient (for the house - hands played per n period) to play until close to an empty shoe. But if they detect a counter, they may shuffle much earlier - half shoe even. At that point, the counter has very little advantage. Regardless of the rules and what casinos choose to allow, they will stop a player that they believe will, over time, really hurt the house. In some cases, however, skilled players will be allowed to count and win big for a period if the house believes that player will take that money and lose it elsewhere on the property. Or if that player is influential and attracts/brings other less successful or disciplined whales, the house may ignore the cost of the one successful counter. In the end, it's about bottom line... unless the player pisses off someone important on the property. In that case, it doesn't matter what the player does - they're gone, banned, and probably blacklisted from other quality properties.