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MIT vs. Las Vegas
spellcheckur writes "Techno-mag-turned-fashion-rag Wired Magazine has an article about
MIT kids counting cards in Las Vegas. I wish I could have made seven figures while I was still in college. Maybe I should get a how-to book." Also, any chance is a good chance to mention The Eudaemonic Pie.
Man... i swear we have nothing better to do... University people have been counting cards in casinos for years... I don't think this is anything totally profound... I know for a fact its been done for at least 40 years by geeks... Read Geeks 2.0: A History of the Internet for a good story about some people almost getting busted while trying to see if the doppler effect could be used to predict the landing of a roulette ball in play...
Insert Sig Here
Craps, my game...:)
,and two, always tip the dealer; they will remember it! At craps play this helps alot...:)
Actually, with a free-odds bet, both pass and don't pass are in your favor by a small margin (about 4 percent). Stay away from anything in the center and you'll be fine...:)
The three games I play in a casino are, in order, craps, pai-gow poker and baccarat, all three are low house odds. Baccarat is rare, just when I feel lucky. The other two I can play for hours on a couple of hundred dollars, just soaking up comps having fun.
If you just out to have fun, the big secrets are, one, be polite
BWP
NO. Card counting is legal both in New Jersey and Nevada. See, for example, this article.
However, the Nevada courts have ruled that as private clubs, the casinos can refuse business or openly discriminate (employ counter-measures like bet capping, early re-shuffling, etc.) against any player for any reason. Counting will get you kicked out, good counting can even get you banned, but it won't send you to jail.
In New Jersey, on the other hand, courts have ruled that gambling can only take place on games of PURE CHANCE and not SKILL. If the casinos tried to press the fact that a cheater counted cards to gain an advantage in court, they would be admitting blackjack is a game of skill, which is illegal. Thus, casinos are on a slippier slope if they try to kick someone out for counting, because a gambler could take his "skilled play" claim to the courts. That's part of the reason Atlantic city casinos almost exclusively play giant 6-deck shoes with maybe 2/3 penetration (reducing counting advantage to near NILL) and never the two-deck and even one-deck gems you see in the West.
baccarat does not have 50/50 odds...in fact the oddss in baccarat are still slightly against you...but the house edge is smaller when you bet on the bank actually...a lot of people don't like that, cause you're betting against the player...but it's the way to go in terms of edge...
see here.... http://fastodds.com/gameodds/baccarat.htm
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
the best shuffling machine out right now uses the following method (for simplicity sake - Ill explain with one deck):
there are 52 cards in a deck.
the machine picks a number at random, say 42.
it grabs card 42 and puts it in a slot
it then slects a number at random (now out of 51)
it takes that card and puts it in the slot.
you tell the machine how many decks its holding - it then selects the random number from the total range its holding....
apparently this is the "most random card shuffler available"
Ummm... No, it's not illegal. If a casino spots a card counter, all they can do is ask you to leave. If you refuse, you can be charged with trespassing.
Casinos want people to believe it's illegal and actively encourage such beliefs, but it's not. As long as you don't tamper with the game, you're not cheating. Here are some other non-cheats:
Using any information available to you without action on your part is not cheating. Counting cards, spotting roulette fields, and dealers with bad procedure are all legit player advantages.
A casino may ask you to leave for any reason. You might be winning due to pure luck, and they can still ask you to leave. If they think you're actually cheating (i.e., marking cards; switching dice) they'll have you arrested.
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
Yes, but the only reason they need a team is to keep the casino from figuring out that they're counting cards. Any one of their spotters could do it on their own (that Kevin Lewis guy goes and does just this at the end of the article), except that the casinos are wise to those tactics. The teamwork is to throw off the eyes of the casino so that they can use their skill to win at the game. It's not cheating at all! It's like a game within a game.
I remember that, but later, well, even John Carmack got booted:
.plan file link. :/
<I>A few of us took a couple days off in vegas this weekend. After about
ten hours at the tables over friday and saturday, I got a tap on the shoulder...
Three men in dark suits introduced themselves and explained that I was welcome
to play any other game in the casino, but I am not allowed to play
blackjack anymore.
Ah well, I guess my blackjack days are over. I was actually down a bit for
the day when they booted me, but I made +$32k over five trips to vegas in the
past two years or so.
I knew I would get kicked out sooner or later, because I don't play "safely".
I sit at the same table for several hours, and I range my bets around 10 to 1.<I>
Sorry can't find the
Will code a sig generator for food