The casino game of twenty-one was introduced to the United States in the 19th century but it was not until the mid 20th century that a system was created to beat the casino in twenty-one. This article is going to grab a swift peak at the development of that strategy, Counting Cards.
When casino gambling was approved in the state of Nevada in 1934, twenty-one screamed into recognition and was usually bet on with 1 or two decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in 1956 which described how to lower the casino edge founded on probability and performance history which was very confusing for individuals who were not math experts.
In ‘62, Dr. Edward O. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to enhance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also created the 1st card counting strategies. Dr. Ed Thorp wrote a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting techniques and the tactics for reducing the house advantage.
This spawned a massive growth in Blackjack players at the US casinos who were attempting to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the bewilderment of the casinos. The strategy was difficult to understand and hard to implement and thusly expanded the earnings for the betting houses as more and more folks took to betting on black jack.
However this massive growth in profits wasn’t to continue as the players became more sophisticated and more accomplished and the system was further perfected. In the 1980’s a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the day-to-day vernacular. Since then the casinos have brought in numerous measures to thwart card counters including, multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumor has it, complex computer software to read actions and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being discovered counting cards will get you blocked from the majority of brick and mortar casinos in vegas.