Over the years I have come across countless instances of questionably, immoral and downright dangerous practices that were justified by the perpetrators with four simple words : I am a Christian.  But this it is the first time I have ever heard it to justify the actions of a organised gambling syndicate. Actually they themselves never actually call it gambling.  It’s just playing blackjack, for money, in Casinos. Spot the difference?

This totally entertaining documentary by filmmaker Bryan Storkel is co-incidentally my second look at some different Christians this week, but unlike the very earnest young men in ‘Beware the Christians’, this group of nerdy young men seemed just to use their very patchy beliefs to cover a multitude of sins.  Two of them, Brian and Colin, came to the conclusion that it was not too tough a stretch to become card counters.  It’s a complex system where by ‘counting’ the cards you can work out the better chances of winning at blackjack.  In theory.

And when they first started out they enjoyed some considerable  success, and as total unknowns they still eluded the Casino’s heavy surveillance network.  Word quickly spread amongst their friends and soon they had a whole team of other young men … and the odd woman …. who wanted in, as they were all bona fida Christians, they called themselves ‘The Church Team’.   It very soon became a highly organized structure : there were investors who put up the stake money (some $1.5 million) the managers, and the card counters.  Everyone worked on a hourly salary and every time their collective winnings hit over $100,000 there was a ‘Bankroll Moment’ and they all got paid out.

They allowed Storkel and his crew unlimited access and they filmed the Group over three years witnessing the bravado of their heady successes to the head-banging and finger-pointing when their enormous losses almost bankrupted them.  All of them insisted that what ever happened, it was ‘the Lord’s will’.  When they admitted a non-believer into the Group just as it was going through a rough patch, he was the one accused of stealing (they were all handling enormous sums of money by now).  When his accuser was asked for the source of his information, he was reluctant to say. He admitted that if he revealed them on camera, it would seem really odd. Pressed he eventually did and he was right, claiming that God had told him seemed more than odd to this non believer, and more than a tad bit spiteful too.

Strangely enough apart from this one incident Storkel left all the group’s wild statements such as ‘casino’s are bad’, ‘we are doing God’s will’ go completely unchecked.   It’a a long time since I ever read a bible or a law book for that matter, so I cannot be sure where either actually stand on gambling especially when its using the very dubious practice of card-counting.  But I’m sure that at best its considered immoral, if not illegal.

With God on their side (or not) The Church Team eventually realized that there is no such thing a as a sure bet, and their enthusiasm for making a quick buck faded when it dawned on them that it wasnt really going to happen after all, and maybe they would have so start working more than 40 hours a month after all.  Just like us non-believers and non-gamblers.

All in all the movie kept me totally entertained until the final credits, even if I did find myself shouting out at  screen in exasperation at times.   Storkel’s next project currently being filmed is called ‘Fight Church’  and its evidently all about how pastors and fighters reconcile their christianity with violent and barbaric martial arts.  I can’t wait. 

★★★★★★★★