Thorp realised that because of the unique way blackjack was played, the odds were not always the same in every round. In other words, over time, the house will always win. A fair coin that has shown heads ten times, still only has a 50% chance of showing heads on the next flip.Ĭasinos and bookmakers make certain that the odds are always stacked slightly in their favour. Winning streaks or losing streaks may occur, but they are only one possible result from the set of all possible outcomes. The odds are the same on every roll of the dice or spin of the wheel. In most gambling games - roulette, dice, slot machines, the lottery - events in the past do not determine the future. He realised that the one feature of blackjack that made it different from other casino games also made it possible to beat. Their audacious winnings marked the climax of an arms race between casino and player that began 40 years earlier with maths professor Edward Thorp. The game was blackjack, and the students were from the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Hardworking engineering students during the week, they became high-rolling gamblers by the weekend and proved that, in one game at least, the house doesn't always win. In the mid-1990s, a team of American science students took on the might of the Las Vegas casinos, and came home with millions of dollars. Card counting and beating the casinos at their own game.
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