The casino game of black jack was introduced to the US in the 19th century but it was not until the middle of the twentieth century that a system was developed to defeat the house in twenty-one. This material is going to take a rapid look at the development of that system, Card Counting.
When casino gambling was authorized in the state of Nevada in ‘34, twenty-one screamed into popularity and was usually played with one or 2 decks of cards. Roger Baldwin wrote a dissertation in 1956 which detailed how to lower the casino advantage based on probability and performance history which was quite difficult to understand for those who weren’t math experts.
In 1962, Dr. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to enhance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the 1st strategies for card counting. Dr. Ed Thorp wrote a book called "Beat the Dealer" which detailed card counting techniques and the tactics for lowering the casino edge.
This spawned a huge increase in chemin de fer competitors at the US betting houses who were attempting to put into practice Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the anxiety of the casinos. The strategy was hard to comprehend and hard to execute and therefore expanded the earnings for the betting houses as more and more folks took to playing twenty-one.
However this massive growth in profits wasn’t to continue as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more cultivated and the system was further perfected. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the regular vocabulary. Since then the casinos have developed countless measures to counteract card counters including (but not limited to), more than one deck, shoes, shuffle machines, and rumor has it, complex computer software to analyze body language and identify "cheaters". While not prohibited being discovered counting cards will get you blocked from all casinos in sin city.
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