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I've never gambled, but from what I've heard Vegas has a hostile attitude towards cardcounters. This always seemed highly irrational, because often times they b
by henning 19y ago
I've never gambled, but from what I've heard Vegas has a hostile attitude towards cardcounters. This always seemed highly irrational, because often times they bring their silly spouse who gives back to the casino more than the smartypants card counter earns.
Then there's the fact that unless you really have some kind of special ace up your sleeve, you can only make maybe $10-25/hr. If you have the smarts to pull off some fancy gambling thing, you can probably use your limited brainpower elsewhere in more profitable ways. It becomes work like anything else. Doing it is not fun, it requires intense concentration and extensive preparation.
- geebee 19y agoYeah, the whole thing does seem like a big waste of time. The MIT blackjack team is capable of 1) writing software to calculate the expected value of a bet under variable counts and deck sizes, 2) focusing well enough to keep count under duress, 3) working closely in a tightly coordinated team environment, and 4) finding investors. They don't need to be plaing blackjack, even under favorable circumstances. They can find a higher expected return by moving to Wall Street and doing computational finance, or by starting software companies. That said, have you ever read Thorpe's "beat the dealer"? There is someting kind of great about gaining an edge over a casino like this. For whatever reason, the idea of using math and computer programming to gain an edge over a casino seems to appeal enormously to a subsection of the population.