Mit Students Blackjack
2021年4月18日Register here: http://gg.gg/p3167
*Mit Students And Blackjack
*Mit Students Blackjack Movie
When we think of gambling, the first thing that comes to mind is that the house always wins. But a group of MIT students proved that the system has its flaws, and it can be beaten. Nowadays, casinos have evolved and adapted their technologies to prevent card counters from taking advantage of the vulnerabilities, but it is still worth trying your luck at some safe and licensed platforms available in the UK.
Keep reading to discover the true story of the infamous MIT Blackjack team that defeated the house.
The Birth of a Legendary Card Counter
Bill Kaplan, a former member of the team, remembers his mom’s reaction when he confessed to her that instead of going to Harvard, he would become rich from gambling. “Oh, God! What Am I going to tell all my friends?” she told him.
His life took a dramatic turn when the leader of a small group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who had dabbled with card counting overheard him discussing his Vegas.
Kaplan was a math genius. After reading a book on card counting, he thought he could use the mathematical model to make a fortune from blackjack. It was not exactly what his mother was hoping that her straight-A son would do with his future. However, his step-father was quite impressed with his choice and challenged Bill to play against him every night and prove that he could win.
“I crushed him for two weeks straight and then he told my mother that he couldn’t believe it, but said that I could win at the game so she should just let me go!” recalls Bill Kaplan. His mother couldn’t do anything but comply, and Bill went to Vegas, where he spent an entire year. So, in 1977, Kaplan took off with $1,000 in his pocket and, within nine months, turned it into nearly $35,000. After his sabbatical year in the city of sins, Kaplan graduated from Harvard while still playing blackjack on any given occasion.
But it wasn’t until a leader of a student group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who played around with card counting overheard Kaplan discussing his blackjack exploits in Vegas when his life took a turn to greatness. The MIT student asked him to train and be in charge of what would later become known as the infamous Blackjack Team.
Cliff castle casino. By the year 1992, Kaplan and his squad were ready to beat the house and become millionaires overnight by exploiting the card counting strategy in the new mega-casinos that were booming at that moment. The team’s friends and partners that had previously seen a 100% win rate on small investments contributed $1 million to fund Strategic Investments. This company would train sharp students in the art of card counting and gambling. Then the new card counters would be sent strategically to unsuspecting casinos.
*The 21 true story reveals that the real MIT Blackjack Team was led by three individuals, none of whom were professors. Arguably, the most notable is Bill Kaplan, a Harvard Business school graduate who had also done his undergraduate studies at Harvard. John Chang and J.P. Massar were also very much the basis for 21 ’s Micky Rosa.
*If you’re into gambling, especially card games such as poker and blackjack, chances are that you would have heard of the famous MIT blackjack team. It was a group of current and alumni MIT students that ravaged casinos across the strip in the last few decades of the 20th century.
Mike Aponte – The Blackjack Hacker
Mike Aponte, one of the students trained by Strategic Investments, was a 22-year-old who had no idea what he would like to do with his life. After training hard with other MIT prodigies, he was handed $40,000 cash to gamble in Atlantic City on behalf of the team. After merely 10 minutes at the blackjack table, he had already lost $10,000.
“An executive casino host came to me right away and invited me to a penthouse suite. It was amazing – it had a jacuzzi and pool table. Despite being in awe of the room, I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would normally have because I was upset about losing all that money.”
Mike’s loss is the perfect example that blackjack is a volatile casino game, even if you use a foul-proof system. However, after continuing to play using the card counting strategy taught by his teammates, Mike Aponte successfully returned home with a net profit of nearly $25,000.
From Student Dorms to VIP Penthouses
Casino moderators are always on the lookout for high rollers – clients that gamble massive amounts – and entice them with perks like free drinks, food, tickets, or rooms, no matter if they win or lose. So the members of the MIT Blackjack Team, who usually spent their week in class, sleeping in dorms and eating at the cafeteria, soon got used to the VIP treatment offered by luxurious casinos.
According to Aponte, being comfortable and dealing with the attention you receive from the casino hosts is more important than the math itself. Since he was Asian, he played the stereotype card that they are reckless gamblers. “My standard story was that I come from a rich family, and I was the spoiled son,” said the student.
As the students got used to living the luxurious casino life, they also became relaxed carrying vast amounts of cash. For instance, after some team members returned to class from a Vegas gambling trip, one of them left a paper lunch bag under his chair. The next morning, Kaplan received a call from that student, who told him that he forgot the paper bag containing over $125,000 in the classroom. The student ran back to the classroom to recover it, but it was gone. Poker main event 2019 live stream.
After six months and investigations by the FBI and DEA, the team eventually got their money back from a cleaner that put it in his locker. The pressure soon started growing as more and more members of the MIT Team were banned from casinos. A private investigator was employed to find out who was responsible for the casino exploits. By analyzing the Boston addresses of many of those caught, he soon realized that the team of casino hackers were MIT students.
Most of the MIT Blackjack Team members were scared of getting caught, even though Aponte told them that the staff was harmless. “You would get a tap on the back, and the security would tell you that the management decided you can play any casino game except blackjack.” However, some security guards could become aggressive, mostly if the casino was outside the US.
Aponte remembers that once a new Ph.D. student who just passed the tests thought it would be a great idea to take his wife, who was also a member of the MIT team, to the Bahamas and try their luck at the casinos there. Once he got around $30,000 profit, the casino management found out that he was using a card counting technique, and called in the police.
“They put them in jail and confiscated not only all their winnings but also the team’s money that they had on them. That player and his wife never gambled for the team again.”
How card counting works
In blackjack, high cards represent an advantage for the gambler, while low cards favor the casino. As a card counter, you have to keep a running tally in your mind, adding 1 for lower cards and subtracting 1 for high ones. When the tally increases (more high cards are left in the deck), you should start placing higher bets.
Even though using this strategy won’t win you every bet, statistically speaking, the odds will be in your favor in the long-run. Card counting should always be applied in secret because the casinos don’t like it, and they are free to refuse to let you play, even if it’s not illegal.
In the 1950s, MIT professor of mathematics Edward Thorp researched this technique using computers. By 1962, he had a theory that he published in a book called “Beat the Dealer.” This publication forever changed the perception of the public regarding the game of blackjack.
The End of Strategic Investments
While most members of the MIT Team gave up after being caught, some of them took extreme measures to keep playing. Kaplan remembers a 21-year-old member that kept playing as a spotter – the person that counts cards and then signals their partner to place big bets when the opportunity arises.
“He shaved his head, put a wig on, dressed like a woman, and kept playing. He was a good looking guy!”
After the pressure kept increasing, Kaplan decided to put an end to Strategic Investments, and the company was dissolved in December 1993. At that time, the team already had 80 members, so it was about time to call it quits.
“As a blackjack player, it’s an amazing experience, but as the manager, we had 10,20 or even 30 people playing in different casinos, some in Vegas, some in Canada, and some in Canada. We had to keep track of their revenue, ensuring that none of them was stealing money,” said Kaplan in an interview.
So, he decided that the best way to evolve and keep making money was investing in real estate or other businesses. His wife was the happiest since she was in charge of telling members what to do if they get kicked out of a casino.
After Strategic Investments was dissolved, Mike Aponte formed a new team of card counters, which focused more on the personalities of the students they recruited. According to Mike, their revenues were over the roof. Eventually, he became too well-known as a cheater so that he couldn’t play anymore, but he still makes a lot of money from blackjack. In 2004, he became the World Series of Blackjack, and many people and casinos seek his advice.
The biggest irony of Mike Aponte’s life is that he became best friends with the very people that were hunting him down. “We pulled off something that very few have achieved. Everybody knows that the golden rule is you can’t beat the house in the long run, but that’s exactly what we managed to pull off!”
Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart Courtesy of CasinoGames.org
Andy ‘The Rock” Bloch is a well known poker player. He has earned over $4.1 million in career tournament earnings, but did you know that he was also a member of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team? He had already graduated from MIT (in l992) but had been accepted to Harvard Law School, and it was the Blackjack Team that funded his tuition (a hefty $41,500 a year), and all his living expenses, as well.HOW IT ALL STARTED
In 1979 there was an Independent Activities Program offered to the MIT students called “How to Gamble if You Must.” It was just an informal club held on campus where students could apply their high IQs and beat each other at a variety of card games. It did not take these bright students long before they realized they could have fun and make some money doing it.
They did not have to be geniuses to realize that Blackjack was the game to play! In order to win at casino blackjack your cards must add up to 21 or be as close to 21 as possible without going over. If the house has a lower hand (total score) than you, or goes over 21, YOU WIN. If it’s a tie, then nobody wins. If the house gets 21, YOU LOSE.
The students at MIT just happened to be exceptionally intelligent students with a gift for mathematics and science. When they put this all together with cards, they quickly figured out that they could count cards with ease and that card counting techniques came naturally to them.
If a blackjack player counts the cards that are dealt to him, then an educated guess can be made about what cards have yet to be dealt. Using this information, a player can play accordingly and devise his next moves, determining whether to hit or stand. Gamblers attempt card counting all the time, but few can keep it up for very long. It requires intense concentration. A dealer can spot it really quickly, though. The MIT team used card counting only as the foundation of their system. They had a number of other tricks such as statistical probability of receiving high or low cards, and they had a technique for cutting cards that further put them in favor of the odds.
By the 1990s the team, with investors to foot the Vegas weekend trips, were experiencing real success and their backers were enjoying big financial returns. Traveling as complete strangers to one another, they made up fake identities for each student. Playing this part and living the life of an alter ego was not only lucrative, but a lot of fun, as well, as you can imagine the adrenalin rush these kids had. For example, Semyon Dukach, a talented team member, who was born in Russia, used his accent and pretend that he was an arms dealer with lots of money to spend.Mit Students And Blackjack
The players never drank, fraternized with each other, or with anyone else for that matter. They never visited brothels or strip clubs on these gambits and followed very strict rules as to how they behaved because time was too valuable, and they needed to be at their best, mentally. If you broke the rules, you were off the team, and this worked well for a while, but kids will be kids, and it was ultimately not following the rules that brought them down.
Every team member had a specific role to play in the system, and they would signal each another in a language of hand gestures and coded conversation, like you may have seen in the movie 21 that depicted their stories. One factoid about the movie, though, is that while it was pretty accurate, the gestures in the movie were not the identical ones that the team actually used, nor were the code words the same. What was dead on accurate was the representation of the experience for the players, for instance when they suddenly arrived in Vegas and felt that feeling like the world was their playground. The real members of the team say that this was the most moving part about watching the movie—remembering the feeling of power and opportunity.
And an opportunity it was. Flying back to Boston after a successful weekend, team members would have to hide their winnings to get it through security. Because it was a cash only business, tens of thousands of dollars had to be smuggled through the airport. Packs of money were strapped to their bodies and jammed into their pockets! But they didn’t win every time, as there were some pretty big losses from time to time, and some would even return empty handed and utterly disappointed.Mit Students Blackjack MovieALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END
Like most people in their twenties, the MIT team thought they were bullet-proof. Eventually, though, carelessness would take them down. They lost their discipline and became complacent. The teams started to relax and have fun with each other out in public rather than adhering to the rules of their system. Instead of acting like they didn’t know each other, they were basking in their glory and partying together. What ultimately brought them down was a total chance spotting of some of them fooling around together at a Las Vegas hotel pool. Vegas is a small town, so it wasn’t long before their cover was blown.
Ironically, it was intelligence that helped the team beat the system, and it was intelligence and their own field of technology that ultimately bought them down. The casinos had hired the best in security surveillance to investigate the team, the Griffin Investigation Agency. This agency discovered that all these big blackjack winners were coming from the Cambridge area of Boston, Massachusetts, and it wasn’t long before the connection was made. With the aid of MIT Yearbooks and facial recognition detection technology, the players were abruptly stopped in their tracks, as investigators put an end to their fun. The last remaining team player was escorted from the table with the parting words, “You can’t play here. You’re too good for us.”
By that point, some of the students were meeting with professional makeup artists, but the disguises weren’t enough in the end. Wigs, baseball caps, even colored contacts could not fool the security officers who had kicked them out before and taken their photos. While it was over for them, as a team, some still played individually in casinos outside of Las Vegas.
Andy Bloch, Kati Lillenkamp, and Semyon Dukach decided to take a three-week junket and use their system of card counting in many of the best European casinos. They had great success in London and Paris. In Monte Carlo, they were winning big, but when Lillenkamp got up and left the table, security would not let her return, and before they knew it, Bloch and Dukach had security agents surrounding their tables, as well. All three of them had their photos taken and a call was placed to the Griffin Agency, as the agency’s database had gone worldwide on the Internet in order to prevent the team members from succeeding in fooling any other casinos. They were marked as known card counters and were told to leave Monaco immediately. They were also asked to never come back.
Andy Bloch has said, “Once your face gets in the database as a known card counter, unless you want to have surgery, your career is pretty much over to any casino that subscribes to this database.”
One thing you might not know is that, at its pinnacle, the MIT team had as many as 80 players, but getting busted wasn’t the worst thing that happened to them. Since the end of their reign on Las Vegas, a great deal of money has been made off their story, as books, movies, and documentaries have told and re-told the incredible tale, depicting all the likely scenarios that may or may not have occurred during the time that the MIT students had their run. There’s just something so enthralling about the whole idea of these guys being smart enough to beat the casinos like that, and it’s all true. Had they not have been kids and been a bit more mature about the whole operation, they might not have been taken down, but there’s an old saying that all good things must come to an end.
Register here: http://gg.gg/p3167
https://diarynote.indered.space
*Mit Students And Blackjack
*Mit Students Blackjack Movie
When we think of gambling, the first thing that comes to mind is that the house always wins. But a group of MIT students proved that the system has its flaws, and it can be beaten. Nowadays, casinos have evolved and adapted their technologies to prevent card counters from taking advantage of the vulnerabilities, but it is still worth trying your luck at some safe and licensed platforms available in the UK.
Keep reading to discover the true story of the infamous MIT Blackjack team that defeated the house.
The Birth of a Legendary Card Counter
Bill Kaplan, a former member of the team, remembers his mom’s reaction when he confessed to her that instead of going to Harvard, he would become rich from gambling. “Oh, God! What Am I going to tell all my friends?” she told him.
His life took a dramatic turn when the leader of a small group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who had dabbled with card counting overheard him discussing his Vegas.
Kaplan was a math genius. After reading a book on card counting, he thought he could use the mathematical model to make a fortune from blackjack. It was not exactly what his mother was hoping that her straight-A son would do with his future. However, his step-father was quite impressed with his choice and challenged Bill to play against him every night and prove that he could win.
“I crushed him for two weeks straight and then he told my mother that he couldn’t believe it, but said that I could win at the game so she should just let me go!” recalls Bill Kaplan. His mother couldn’t do anything but comply, and Bill went to Vegas, where he spent an entire year. So, in 1977, Kaplan took off with $1,000 in his pocket and, within nine months, turned it into nearly $35,000. After his sabbatical year in the city of sins, Kaplan graduated from Harvard while still playing blackjack on any given occasion.
But it wasn’t until a leader of a student group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who played around with card counting overheard Kaplan discussing his blackjack exploits in Vegas when his life took a turn to greatness. The MIT student asked him to train and be in charge of what would later become known as the infamous Blackjack Team.
Cliff castle casino. By the year 1992, Kaplan and his squad were ready to beat the house and become millionaires overnight by exploiting the card counting strategy in the new mega-casinos that were booming at that moment. The team’s friends and partners that had previously seen a 100% win rate on small investments contributed $1 million to fund Strategic Investments. This company would train sharp students in the art of card counting and gambling. Then the new card counters would be sent strategically to unsuspecting casinos.
*The 21 true story reveals that the real MIT Blackjack Team was led by three individuals, none of whom were professors. Arguably, the most notable is Bill Kaplan, a Harvard Business school graduate who had also done his undergraduate studies at Harvard. John Chang and J.P. Massar were also very much the basis for 21 ’s Micky Rosa.
*If you’re into gambling, especially card games such as poker and blackjack, chances are that you would have heard of the famous MIT blackjack team. It was a group of current and alumni MIT students that ravaged casinos across the strip in the last few decades of the 20th century.
Mike Aponte – The Blackjack Hacker
Mike Aponte, one of the students trained by Strategic Investments, was a 22-year-old who had no idea what he would like to do with his life. After training hard with other MIT prodigies, he was handed $40,000 cash to gamble in Atlantic City on behalf of the team. After merely 10 minutes at the blackjack table, he had already lost $10,000.
“An executive casino host came to me right away and invited me to a penthouse suite. It was amazing – it had a jacuzzi and pool table. Despite being in awe of the room, I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would normally have because I was upset about losing all that money.”
Mike’s loss is the perfect example that blackjack is a volatile casino game, even if you use a foul-proof system. However, after continuing to play using the card counting strategy taught by his teammates, Mike Aponte successfully returned home with a net profit of nearly $25,000.
From Student Dorms to VIP Penthouses
Casino moderators are always on the lookout for high rollers – clients that gamble massive amounts – and entice them with perks like free drinks, food, tickets, or rooms, no matter if they win or lose. So the members of the MIT Blackjack Team, who usually spent their week in class, sleeping in dorms and eating at the cafeteria, soon got used to the VIP treatment offered by luxurious casinos.
According to Aponte, being comfortable and dealing with the attention you receive from the casino hosts is more important than the math itself. Since he was Asian, he played the stereotype card that they are reckless gamblers. “My standard story was that I come from a rich family, and I was the spoiled son,” said the student.
As the students got used to living the luxurious casino life, they also became relaxed carrying vast amounts of cash. For instance, after some team members returned to class from a Vegas gambling trip, one of them left a paper lunch bag under his chair. The next morning, Kaplan received a call from that student, who told him that he forgot the paper bag containing over $125,000 in the classroom. The student ran back to the classroom to recover it, but it was gone. Poker main event 2019 live stream.
After six months and investigations by the FBI and DEA, the team eventually got their money back from a cleaner that put it in his locker. The pressure soon started growing as more and more members of the MIT Team were banned from casinos. A private investigator was employed to find out who was responsible for the casino exploits. By analyzing the Boston addresses of many of those caught, he soon realized that the team of casino hackers were MIT students.
Most of the MIT Blackjack Team members were scared of getting caught, even though Aponte told them that the staff was harmless. “You would get a tap on the back, and the security would tell you that the management decided you can play any casino game except blackjack.” However, some security guards could become aggressive, mostly if the casino was outside the US.
Aponte remembers that once a new Ph.D. student who just passed the tests thought it would be a great idea to take his wife, who was also a member of the MIT team, to the Bahamas and try their luck at the casinos there. Once he got around $30,000 profit, the casino management found out that he was using a card counting technique, and called in the police.
“They put them in jail and confiscated not only all their winnings but also the team’s money that they had on them. That player and his wife never gambled for the team again.”
How card counting works
In blackjack, high cards represent an advantage for the gambler, while low cards favor the casino. As a card counter, you have to keep a running tally in your mind, adding 1 for lower cards and subtracting 1 for high ones. When the tally increases (more high cards are left in the deck), you should start placing higher bets.
Even though using this strategy won’t win you every bet, statistically speaking, the odds will be in your favor in the long-run. Card counting should always be applied in secret because the casinos don’t like it, and they are free to refuse to let you play, even if it’s not illegal.
In the 1950s, MIT professor of mathematics Edward Thorp researched this technique using computers. By 1962, he had a theory that he published in a book called “Beat the Dealer.” This publication forever changed the perception of the public regarding the game of blackjack.
The End of Strategic Investments
While most members of the MIT Team gave up after being caught, some of them took extreme measures to keep playing. Kaplan remembers a 21-year-old member that kept playing as a spotter – the person that counts cards and then signals their partner to place big bets when the opportunity arises.
“He shaved his head, put a wig on, dressed like a woman, and kept playing. He was a good looking guy!”
After the pressure kept increasing, Kaplan decided to put an end to Strategic Investments, and the company was dissolved in December 1993. At that time, the team already had 80 members, so it was about time to call it quits.
“As a blackjack player, it’s an amazing experience, but as the manager, we had 10,20 or even 30 people playing in different casinos, some in Vegas, some in Canada, and some in Canada. We had to keep track of their revenue, ensuring that none of them was stealing money,” said Kaplan in an interview.
So, he decided that the best way to evolve and keep making money was investing in real estate or other businesses. His wife was the happiest since she was in charge of telling members what to do if they get kicked out of a casino.
After Strategic Investments was dissolved, Mike Aponte formed a new team of card counters, which focused more on the personalities of the students they recruited. According to Mike, their revenues were over the roof. Eventually, he became too well-known as a cheater so that he couldn’t play anymore, but he still makes a lot of money from blackjack. In 2004, he became the World Series of Blackjack, and many people and casinos seek his advice.
The biggest irony of Mike Aponte’s life is that he became best friends with the very people that were hunting him down. “We pulled off something that very few have achieved. Everybody knows that the golden rule is you can’t beat the house in the long run, but that’s exactly what we managed to pull off!”
Blackjack Basic Strategy Chart Courtesy of CasinoGames.org
Andy ‘The Rock” Bloch is a well known poker player. He has earned over $4.1 million in career tournament earnings, but did you know that he was also a member of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team? He had already graduated from MIT (in l992) but had been accepted to Harvard Law School, and it was the Blackjack Team that funded his tuition (a hefty $41,500 a year), and all his living expenses, as well.HOW IT ALL STARTED
In 1979 there was an Independent Activities Program offered to the MIT students called “How to Gamble if You Must.” It was just an informal club held on campus where students could apply their high IQs and beat each other at a variety of card games. It did not take these bright students long before they realized they could have fun and make some money doing it.
They did not have to be geniuses to realize that Blackjack was the game to play! In order to win at casino blackjack your cards must add up to 21 or be as close to 21 as possible without going over. If the house has a lower hand (total score) than you, or goes over 21, YOU WIN. If it’s a tie, then nobody wins. If the house gets 21, YOU LOSE.
The students at MIT just happened to be exceptionally intelligent students with a gift for mathematics and science. When they put this all together with cards, they quickly figured out that they could count cards with ease and that card counting techniques came naturally to them.
If a blackjack player counts the cards that are dealt to him, then an educated guess can be made about what cards have yet to be dealt. Using this information, a player can play accordingly and devise his next moves, determining whether to hit or stand. Gamblers attempt card counting all the time, but few can keep it up for very long. It requires intense concentration. A dealer can spot it really quickly, though. The MIT team used card counting only as the foundation of their system. They had a number of other tricks such as statistical probability of receiving high or low cards, and they had a technique for cutting cards that further put them in favor of the odds.
By the 1990s the team, with investors to foot the Vegas weekend trips, were experiencing real success and their backers were enjoying big financial returns. Traveling as complete strangers to one another, they made up fake identities for each student. Playing this part and living the life of an alter ego was not only lucrative, but a lot of fun, as well, as you can imagine the adrenalin rush these kids had. For example, Semyon Dukach, a talented team member, who was born in Russia, used his accent and pretend that he was an arms dealer with lots of money to spend.Mit Students And Blackjack
The players never drank, fraternized with each other, or with anyone else for that matter. They never visited brothels or strip clubs on these gambits and followed very strict rules as to how they behaved because time was too valuable, and they needed to be at their best, mentally. If you broke the rules, you were off the team, and this worked well for a while, but kids will be kids, and it was ultimately not following the rules that brought them down.
Every team member had a specific role to play in the system, and they would signal each another in a language of hand gestures and coded conversation, like you may have seen in the movie 21 that depicted their stories. One factoid about the movie, though, is that while it was pretty accurate, the gestures in the movie were not the identical ones that the team actually used, nor were the code words the same. What was dead on accurate was the representation of the experience for the players, for instance when they suddenly arrived in Vegas and felt that feeling like the world was their playground. The real members of the team say that this was the most moving part about watching the movie—remembering the feeling of power and opportunity.
And an opportunity it was. Flying back to Boston after a successful weekend, team members would have to hide their winnings to get it through security. Because it was a cash only business, tens of thousands of dollars had to be smuggled through the airport. Packs of money were strapped to their bodies and jammed into their pockets! But they didn’t win every time, as there were some pretty big losses from time to time, and some would even return empty handed and utterly disappointed.Mit Students Blackjack MovieALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END
Like most people in their twenties, the MIT team thought they were bullet-proof. Eventually, though, carelessness would take them down. They lost their discipline and became complacent. The teams started to relax and have fun with each other out in public rather than adhering to the rules of their system. Instead of acting like they didn’t know each other, they were basking in their glory and partying together. What ultimately brought them down was a total chance spotting of some of them fooling around together at a Las Vegas hotel pool. Vegas is a small town, so it wasn’t long before their cover was blown.
Ironically, it was intelligence that helped the team beat the system, and it was intelligence and their own field of technology that ultimately bought them down. The casinos had hired the best in security surveillance to investigate the team, the Griffin Investigation Agency. This agency discovered that all these big blackjack winners were coming from the Cambridge area of Boston, Massachusetts, and it wasn’t long before the connection was made. With the aid of MIT Yearbooks and facial recognition detection technology, the players were abruptly stopped in their tracks, as investigators put an end to their fun. The last remaining team player was escorted from the table with the parting words, “You can’t play here. You’re too good for us.”
By that point, some of the students were meeting with professional makeup artists, but the disguises weren’t enough in the end. Wigs, baseball caps, even colored contacts could not fool the security officers who had kicked them out before and taken their photos. While it was over for them, as a team, some still played individually in casinos outside of Las Vegas.
Andy Bloch, Kati Lillenkamp, and Semyon Dukach decided to take a three-week junket and use their system of card counting in many of the best European casinos. They had great success in London and Paris. In Monte Carlo, they were winning big, but when Lillenkamp got up and left the table, security would not let her return, and before they knew it, Bloch and Dukach had security agents surrounding their tables, as well. All three of them had their photos taken and a call was placed to the Griffin Agency, as the agency’s database had gone worldwide on the Internet in order to prevent the team members from succeeding in fooling any other casinos. They were marked as known card counters and were told to leave Monaco immediately. They were also asked to never come back.
Andy Bloch has said, “Once your face gets in the database as a known card counter, unless you want to have surgery, your career is pretty much over to any casino that subscribes to this database.”
One thing you might not know is that, at its pinnacle, the MIT team had as many as 80 players, but getting busted wasn’t the worst thing that happened to them. Since the end of their reign on Las Vegas, a great deal of money has been made off their story, as books, movies, and documentaries have told and re-told the incredible tale, depicting all the likely scenarios that may or may not have occurred during the time that the MIT students had their run. There’s just something so enthralling about the whole idea of these guys being smart enough to beat the casinos like that, and it’s all true. Had they not have been kids and been a bit more mature about the whole operation, they might not have been taken down, but there’s an old saying that all good things must come to an end.
Register here: http://gg.gg/p3167
https://diarynote.indered.space
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