Blackjack Manipulation

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Blackjack is a simple game that many people have lost a large sum of money on, but through counting cards people have also won a lot of money. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) had a blackjack team of students who counted cards for profit. Jenny Zhang wrote in MIT’s newspaper, The Tech, stating, “Over a few years in the 1990s, MIT students earned several million dollars by playing blackjack in Las Vegas casinos” (Zhang,1). Although counting cards is not illegal, it is frowned and, generally not allowed, in gambling casinos. “stopped four years ago mainly because of the stress of knowing I could get caught. It is scary; they will take illegal measures such as pulling you to the back room” (Zhang,1) Therefore they were barred from …show more content…

Assuming most people do not count cards when playing blackjack it is harder for the casinos to filter out those who are fortunate from those who are skilled. In Breaking Vegas, a documentary of the teams blackjack story, it was mentioned that “the pit boss couldn’t figure they're game”(Atlas Media Corp & Bruce David Klein, 2004). By creating this image and not telling the casino that they are counting cards, they are manipulating the casino into thinking that the players on the team are extremely lucky gamblers. This strategy of playing the game allows the MIT students to come win over “four million dollars in winnings”(Atlas Media Corp & Bruce David Klein, 2004). The students use the advantage of withholding information to swindle the casino’s house of a lot of …show more content…

“They would have a variety of persons and variety of characters to play at different casinos.”(Atlas Media Corp & Bruce David Klein, 2004). Having different characters was different from changing their inner persona, these new characters they were changing their actual physical appearance. In doing so, they were allowed into the casinos, but still eventually got caught. They still kept at it because they wanted to keep gambling and taking money from the casino. This endeavor shows that they were extremely comfortable with manipulating the casinos that they did not care if they got caught. The disguises are a prime attempt at tricking the casino that they are new

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