The card game of black jack was brought to the United States of America in the 19th century but it wasn’t until the mid 20th century that a strategy was created to beat the casino in Blackjack. This article is going to grab a rapid peak at the development of that system, Card Counting.

When casino gambling was legalized in the state of Nevada in 1934, twenty-one screamed into popularity and was commonly gambled on with one or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a dissertation in ‘56 which detailed how to lower the casino advantage built on odds and statistics which was very complicated for gamblers who were not math experts.

In ‘62, Dr. Edward O. Thorp utilized an IBM 704 computer to better the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the first techniques for card counting. Dr. Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which outlined card counting strategies and the strategies for lowering the casino edge.

This spawned a large growth in twenty-one gamblers at the US betting houses who were trying to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s strategies, much to the anxiety of the casinos. The technique was not easy to understand and hard to carry through and therefore improved the earnings for the betting houses as more and more folks took to wagering on black jack.

However this huge growth in earnings wasn’t to continue as the gamblers became more refined and more aware and the system was further refined. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology made counting cards a part of the day-to-day vernacular. Since then the casinos have developed countless methods to thwart players who count cards including (but not limited to), multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumor has it, complex computer software to analyze body language and identify "cheaters". While not prohibited being caught counting cards will get you banned from all brick and mortar casinos in vegas.