I recently read the book Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich. After being in Las Vegas a couple of times this past year I was feeling like I needed to figure out a way to get rich so that I could spend more time at the gaming tables. This book is a fictionalized account of some MIT students that used their math skills to beat the casinos at blackjack. The book is supposed to be non-fiction, but a couple of recent articles and interviews with people portrayed in the book have made it clear that the story is for entertainment, not facts. Even so, it is quite interesting to see how a group of nerdy kids can become expert at card counting. Working in teams, they hit the casino and have some members counting cards at a table while others come in and take advantage of a positive run with high bets and walk away when the cards are about to turn. The methods they use are not for the casual player. Minimum stakes for a night of cards was more than $10,000. Not every night was a winning night. Still the book describes weekends with profits of $50,000 to $100,000 and more. The characters take great pains to describe how their activities are perfectly legal. Yet the casinos wage war against them banning them from one casino after another. The players felt as if they were Robin Hoods, liberating money from big corporations. Instead of giving the money to the poor though, they kept it for themselves to buy big screen TVs, hugely expensive dinners and buy luxury condos. A movie adapted from the book came out earlier this year. It had very little interest and is probably out in DVD now.
The book was an easy quick read. I wanted my kids to start counting cards so that I could retire. They just looked at me like I was nuts. What else is new?
Enjoy!
Dennis
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