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The card game of Blackjack was brought to the United States of America in the 19th century but it was not until the mid twentieth century that a system was developed to defeat the casino in chemin de fer. This material is going to grab a quick peak at the creation of that technique, Counting Cards.

When wagering was legalized in Nevada in ‘34, twenty-one sky-rocketed into popularity and was usually wagered on with one or two decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in 1956 which explained how to reduce the house edge based on odds and statistics which was very confusing for gamblers who weren’t math experts.

In ‘62, Dr. Ed Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s dissertation and also developed the 1st card counting strategies. Dr. Thorp wrote a book called "Beat the Dealer" which detailed card counting techniques and the strategies for reducing the house advantage.

This spawned a large increase in chemin de fer competitors at the US casinos who were attempting to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the bewilderment of the casinos. The technique was difficult to understand and hard to carry through and therefore elevated the profits for the casinos as more and more folks took to betting on twenty-one.

However this large increase in profits wasn’t to last as the gamblers became more sophisticated and more educated and the system was further improved. In the 80’s a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made card counting a part of the regular vernacular. Since then the casinos have developed countless measures to counteract players who count cards including but not limited to, more than one deck, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumour has it, sophisticated computer software to observe actions and detect "cheaters". While not illegal being caught counting cards will get you barred from most if not all casinos in sin city.