The casino game of chemin de fer was brought to the United States in the 19th century but it wasn’t until the mid 20th century that a strategy was created to defeat the casino in twenty-one. This article is going to grab a quick look at the birth of that strategy, Card Counting.

When wagering was legitimized in the state of Nevada in 1934, Blackjack screamed into popularity and was usually gambled on with 1 or 2 decks of cards. Roger Baldwin wrote a paper in 1956 which explained how to lower the casino advantage based on probability and stats which was very confusing for gamblers who were not mathematicians.

In ‘62, Dr. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to refine the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also created the 1st techniques for counting cards. Dr. Thorp wrote a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting strategies and the tactics for reducing the casino advantage.

This created a massive growth in twenty-one competitors at the US casinos who were attempting to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the alarm of the casinos. The system was not easy to understand and difficult to carry through and therefore expanded the earnings for the betting houses as more and more people took to gambling on chemin de fer.

However this massive growth in profits wasn’t to last as the gamblers became more highly developed and more accomplished and the system was further improved. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from MIT made card counting a part of the regular vocabulary. Since then the casinos have introduced countless measures to counteract players who count cards including (but not limited to), multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and gossip has it, complex computer software to read body language and identify "cheaters". While not prohibited being caught counting cards will get you blocked from most casinos in Las Vegas.