Casinos Over the Years

For hundreds of years, casinos have been a place where people can go and gamble in a safe and secure environment. Millions of people gamble in a casino every year, whether itýs a small, local casino in Europe or a world famous casino in on ýThe Stripý in Las Vegas. The one thing each and every gambler at the casino has in common is that as much as they may win, the casino ý the house ý always has the edge, meaning they will always win more money than their customers will. However, in some very rare cases, people can make the edge in their favour, rather than in the houses. One of the most popular examples of this is:

The MIT Blackjack Team were a small group of students from several American universities, including the much coveted Harvard Business School, became experts at Blackjack and card counting techniques, giving them a fantastic edge against the casinos.

Starting in early 1979, the group learnt a card counting technique at University, via a short University course which showed them how to gamble both responsibly and cleverly. Feeling confident, the group decided to put their new tactics into play and headed to Atlantic City on their spring break. Unfortunately, as with a lot of card gambling techniques, when the group were out of the comfort of their own area and feeling less confident, their money dwindled and the group returned home, empty pockets and the majority of them bored with both Blackjack and card counting techniques.

Some remained interested and continued to play low key ý and these were the players who went on to make millions.

Everything they were doing was at the time legal. Unethical, but completely legal and extremely intelligent.

Over the coming years, more and more underground Blackjack card counting teams were set up and whilst a lot failed, the best went on to make some very respectable money. In essence, it was quite simple. Once the technique was mastered, it was down to how much money the team could raise at first. The answer? Have someone with a lot of money invest. And surprisingly, this is what happened. When people heard about these teams, respectable businessmen were throwing thousands at them, with the inside knowledge that within a few weeks theyýll have a great return on their money ý for doing absolutely nothing. The rest of the team then shared their winnings at the end of the period. Some players will have had more ups or downs than others, but over a length of time, their winnings will all have been equal.

Of course, the casinos eventually realised what was going on and tried to stop it. Much more difficult than it sounds, as how can one stop someone from card counting? And furthermore, how could the house prove someone was card counting? They couldnýt, so they simply banned anyone, who was found out by hired private detectives, to be involved in any Blackjack card counting team.

The story of the MIT Blackjack Team story is an extremely interesting one and this only touches on the topic. However, if one thing is noted from the story it is not that it is possible to beat the house, but that not to try to. Whilst the MIT Blackjack Team were successful, they lost a large amount of money leading up to their winnings and, more importantly, they were part of only a miniscule percentage that actually does beat the house more than the house beats them.

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