The Origin of Blackjack
by Roderick on Saturday, January 30th, 2010
The casino game of black jack was introduced to the United States in the 1800’s but it wasn’t until the middle of the twentieth century that a system was developed to beat the house in black jack. This material is going to grab a quick look at the birth of that strategy, Counting Cards.
When betting was approved in the state of Nevada in 1934, black jack sky-rocketed into recognition and was most commonly gambled on with 1 or 2 decks of cards. Roger Baldwin wrote a dissertation in 1956 which described how to lower the casino edge founded on probability and performance history which was very bewildering for individuals who were not mathematicians.
In 1962, Dr. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the 1st card counting tactics. Dr. Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting techniques and the tactics for lowering the house edge.
This created a huge increase in Blackjack competitors at the US betting houses who were trying to implement Dr. Thorp’s strategies, much to the awe of the casinos. The strategy was difficult to understand and difficult to carry through and therefore expanded the earnings for the betting houses as more and more people took to playing twenty-one.
However this massive growth in profits wasn’t to last as the players became more sophisticated and more cultivated and the system was further improved. In the 80’s a group of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the day-to-day vocabulary. Since then the casinos have brought in numerous methods to counteract players who count cards including (but not limited to), more than one deck, shoes, shuffle machines, and rumour has it, complex computer programs to read body language and detect "cheaters". While not against the law being caught counting cards will get you barred from many brick and mortar casinos in vegas.
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