The Origin of Chemin de Fer
The game of black jack was introduced to the US in the 1800’s but it was not until the mid twentieth century that a technique was created to beat the casino in black jack. This article is going to grab a quick look at the development of that strategy, Counting Cards.
When betting was approved in the state of Nevada in ‘34, Blackjack screamed into universal appeal and was commonly gambled on with 1 or 2 decks of cards. Roger Baldwin published a dissertation in 1956 which detailed how to reduce the casino advantage built on odds and stats which was very confusing for people who were not mathematicians.
In ‘62, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to enhance the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the first card counting tactics. Dr. Thorp wrote a book called "Beat the Dealer" which detailed card counting strategies and the strategies for reducing the casino advantage.
This created a large growth in black jack players at the US casinos who were trying to implement Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the amazement of the casinos. The strategy was challenging to understand and difficult to carry through and thusly increased the earnings for the casinos as more and more folks took to gambling on black jack.
However this massive increase in profits was not to continue as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more insightful and the system was further refined. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the day-to-day vocabulary. Since then the casinos have developed numerous methods to counteract card counters including but not limited to, multiple decks, shoes, shuffle machines, and rumour has it, complex computer software to scrutinize body language and detect "cheaters". While not illegal being caught counting cards will get you barred from many brick and mortar casinos in vegas.