The game of Blackjack was introduced to the US in the 1800’s but it was not until the middle of the twentieth century that a technique was created to beat the casino in twenty-one. This article is going to take a rapid look at the creation of that strategy, Counting Cards.
When casino gambling was authorized in Nevada in 1934, black jack sky-rocketed into recognition and was usually played with 1 or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in ‘56 which detailed how to lower the casino edge founded on probability and performance history which was really difficult to understand for those who were not math experts.
In ‘62, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the first card counting strategies. Dr. Ed Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which detailed card counting techniques and the tactics for reducing the casino edge.
This spawned a huge growth in chemin de fer gamblers at the US casinos who were attempting to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the alarm of the casinos. The system was difficult to comprehend and difficult to carry through and thusly improved the profits for the casinos as more and more people took to gambling on twenty-one.
However this large increase in earnings was not to last as the players became more highly developed and more aware and the system was further improved. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the everyday vocabulary. Since then the casinos have developed numerous measures to counteract card counters including, multiple decks, shoes, shuffle machines, and speculation has it, sophisticated computer software to analyze body language and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you barred from many brick and mortar casinos in sin city.