The card game of twenty-one was introduced to the United States of America in the 19th century but it was not until the middle of the 20th century that a strategy was created to defeat the casino in black jack. This article is going to take a swift look at the birth of that strategy, Card Counting.
When betting was approved in Nevada in ‘34, twenty-one screamed into popularity and was most commonly gambled on with one or two decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a dissertation in ‘56 which explained how to reduce the casino advantage built on odds and performance history which was very confusing for those who were not mathematicians.
In ‘62, Dr. Ed Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to advance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also developed the 1st card counting strategies. Dr. Thorp authored a tome called "Beat the Dealer" which illustrated card counting strategies and the strategies for lowering the casino edge.
This created a large growth in Blackjack competitors at the US betting houses who were trying to implement Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the anxiety of the casinos. The technique was difficult to understand and hard to execute and thusly expanded the earnings for the casinos as more and more people took to betting on twenty-one.
However this huge growth in profits was not to last as the gamblers became more refined and more aware and the system was further refined. In the 80’s a group of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the everyday vocabulary. Since then the casinos have developed numerous methods to thwart card counters including but not limited to, more than one deck, shoes, shuffle machines, and gossip has it, complex computer software to read actions and detect "cheaters". While not illegal being discovered counting cards will get you barred from most if not all betting houses in sin city.