I just watched this Horizon documentary (UK) about card counters who out-smarted big casinos and made millions by using statistical/probability related techniques. There was a group called the ‘Amphibians’ who studied at MIT. Alot of the ‘counters’ were MIT students actually. It was fascinating, they increased their chances of winning by using a scoring system which tipped the odds their way by about 1%. They would wait until the remaining cards in the deck was more likely to deal in their favour before betting big money.
They were soon rumbled when they tried the same thing in Europe, hoping to evade the facial-recognition system which had successfully deterred such activity in the states, only to find the casino security escort them to a back room…
A picture was taken of them and sent to Vegas where it was scanned by said recognition system, revealing them as MIT students on the card-counters database. They were told to never enter the country again or suffer the consequences.
Do you like blackjack, Kirupa? :trout:
Thought you guys would find this interesting. I certainly did.
