I never, ever learned anything from a newscientist.com article. Those articles are cute, but one learns nothing deep. I say we go directly to the source! Here i

I never, ever learned anything from a newscientist.com article. Those articles are cute, but one learns nothing deep. I say we go directly to the source! Here is it, Ed Thorp's The Mathematics of Gambling: http://www.bjmath.com/bjmath/thorp/tog.htm http://www.bjmath.com/bjmath/thorp/tog.htm which is the true "bible" of scientific betting. For the mathematically-inclined, I also recommend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_and_information_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_and_information_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion and if you still have some energy left, try this: A Markov Chain Analysis of Blackjack Strategy http://www.ece.rice.edu/~crozell/courseproj/MCBJ.pdf http://www.ece.rice.edu/~crozell/courseproj/MCBJ.pdf Have fun! And remember: life is too short to read crappy articles!