The Church Team was a

card counting Card counting is a blackjack betting strategy, strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low valued c ...

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

team that operated from 2005 to 2011. It was started and managed by Ben Crawford and Colin Jones. Over the years the team included approximately 30 investors, 40 players, and various levels of managers and trainers. The team was primarily based out of the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

area but had almost 15 players from the

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

area as well as players from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, NY,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. The team, at its highest point, was playing with $1.2 million of investors money and in the course of the 6 years won more than $3 million from casinos. The team would come together and meet quarterly in the Seattle area to discuss goals, business model changes, introduce new players, and test old players out. The group's story is the subject of ''Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians'', directed by a former member of the group, Bryan Storkel.Mary Pilon (March 9, 2012
"A Card-Counting Mix of Bibles, Blackjack and Cash"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Retrieved 2013-10-13. The Church Team officially disbanded after 6 years in 2011. Ben Crawford was arrested for child abuse in August of 2024.

References

{{reflist

External links

CNN: My Take: Jesus would be OK with card countingReview: “Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians” Christian card counters
* ttp://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/466/transcript This American Life Transcript: Blackjack American blackjack players