The casino game of Blackjack was introduced to the U.S. in the 19th century but it was not until the middle of the twentieth century that a technique was created to beat the casino in black jack. This article is going to grab a quick peak at the birth of that system, Card Counting.
When wagering was made legal in the state of Nevada in 1934, Blackjack sky-rocketed into popularity and was commonly wagered on with 1 or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin published a paper in ‘56 which detailed how to reduce the house advantage founded on odds and statistics which was really bewildering for gamblers who weren’t mathematicians.
In 1962, Dr. Ed Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to better the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the first card counting strategies. Dr. Thorp wrote a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting techniques and the tactics for reducing the house advantage.
This spawned a large increase in twenty-one competitors at the US betting houses who were trying to implement Dr. Ed Thorp’s techniques, much to the bewilderment of the casinos. The system was not easy to understand and hard to implement and therefore increased the earnings for the betting houses as more and more people took to wagering on chemin de fer.
However this large growth in profits was not to continue as the gamblers became more highly developed and more educated and the system was further improved. In the 80’s a group of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the regular vernacular. Since then the casinos have introduced countless measures to thwart players who count cards including (but not limited to), multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and gossip has itnow complex computer programs to analyze actions and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you blocked from all betting houses in sin city.
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