I may be picking a nit, but counting cards is legal in all casinos in the US. You are not breaking a law by counting cards, but the the casino has the right to stop providing you its service if you are, or if they even think you are (right up there with "No shirt, no shoes, no service").

Perhaps you mean that casinos in Atlantic City actually will not kick you out if they suspect you're counting cards, or they're bound by some law to allow you to keep playing?

If counting cards were actually illegal, we'd be a lot further along on our way to Orwell's 1984. You can't outlaw thought (yet).

Yes, you are correct. What I meant is that the casinos are forbidden from asking you to stop playing or to leave the casino based on counting cards. It's really in the casino's best interest though, because there are more people who think they can count cards than there are people who can do it effectively.

>counting cards is legal in Atlantic City, but if they suspect you of it they'll shuffle every hand or not let you change the size of your bet.

The fact that there's something to "suspect you of" is the whole problem. Doing the same (counting cards) in poker is explicitly encouraged, and the ability to know what cards remain in the deck is highly prized.

Blackjack is just not a very well-designed game.

Counting cards in poker? Say what? The deck is shuffled between every hand.

Unless you're referring to the basic skill of determining odds to make a certain hand based on your hole cards and the common cards?

That's true for hold'em, but in stud variants you need to keep track of the cards held or folded by other players.

But that's a very different skill from counting cards.

It's the same idea: predict future draws based on used cards.

In one you have you remember the attributes of the cards in the other you just have to maintain a running total. They are very different skills.