The game of chemin de fer was brought to the United States of America in the 19th century but it was not until the middle of the 20th century that a technique was developed to beat the casino in chemin de fer. This material is going to grab a quick peak at the creation of that system, Counting Cards.
When betting was legalized in the state of Nevada in ‘34, chemin de fer screamed into popularity and was commonly bet on with 1 or 2 decks. Roger Baldwin wrote a dissertation in ‘56 which explained how to lower the casino advantage founded on odds and stats which was really difficult to understand for people who weren’t math experts.
In 1962, Dr. Thorp used an IBM 704 computer to better the mathematical strategy in Baldwin’s paper and also developed the first card counting strategies. Dr. Thorp authored a book called "Beat the Dealer" which summarized card counting techniques and the tactics for lowering the casino advantage.
This created a large increase in twenty-one players at the US betting houses who were trying to put into practice Dr. Ed Thorp’s techniques, much to the consternation of the casinos. The strategy was hard to understand and complicated to execute and thusly expanded the profits for the casinos as more and more folks took to gambling on twenty-one.
However this large increase in profits was not to continue as the players became more refined and more cultivated and the system was further improved. In the 1980’s a bunch of students from MIT made counting cards a part of the day-to-day vocabulary. Since then the casinos have introduced countless measures to counteract players who count cards including but not limited to, multiple decks, shoes, constant shuffle machines, and rumor has it, sophisticated computer programs to scrutinize actions and identify "cheaters". While not against the law being discovered counting cards will get you barred from all brick and mortar casinos in sin city.