MIT Blackjack Team – Breaking Vegas with a Bunch of Students

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. Our goal with this blog post is to share with you the true story of the most notorious group of card counters in the history of blackjack. To achieve complete authenticity, we have based this story on the personal testimonies and official statements of the people who were actually there.

But before we dive into the nitty-gritty of the article, we would like to take a few seconds and address the elephant in the room. As you probably know, card counting is not considered illegal, however, if you get caught doing it, you are most likely going to get banned. So, think twice before attempting to card counts, in case you to get inspired by the feats of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team.

The Original MIT Blackjack Team – How it All Started

Even though card counting has been around for a very long time, it was only in 1979 that the very first group of students formed, after being contacted by a professional blackjack player. What made it possible was the fact that in the very same year the New Jersey Control Commission passed a new regulation that forbade casinos in Atlantic City to ban the act of card counting. Instead, venues had to catch and ban players individually, which gave the MIT guys a little leeway to do their magic, before eventually being thrown out.

There were three individuals that can be considered as the founding fathers of the MIT blackjack team and they are J.P. Massar (Mr. ‘M’), John Chang and Bill Kaplan. As we are talking about gambling, it is only fitting that pure luck was what brought Massar and Kaplan together. While having dinner at a Chinese place in Cambridge, Mr M overheard a conversation about card counting, which happened to be between his future partners in crime. As the story goes, the three joined efforts to create and run the MIT blackjack team, which was operational from late 1979 all the way to the beginning of the 21st century.

Card Counting – MIT Blackjack Team Strategy

As card counting was the main weapon in the hands of the MIT blackjack team, it is about time that we present you with a good explanation of how it actually works. It is a game strategy, that is mainly associated with playing blackjack and is used to determine whether the player is going to have an advantage over the house in each following hand. As there is luck involved, card counting does not guarantee a victory, but it can considerably lower the inherent house advantage. So much so that almost every casino in the world is either going to ban players that perform the stunt, or utilise multiple decks to make it impossible for them to keep track.

As you could expect, some serious mathematical skills are required, which means that a very small amount of players are ever going to be able to pull it off with consistent success. This is one of the main reasons why the infamous MIT blackjack team was formed and run by students and alumni from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other leading universities across the country. That being said, if you’d to give card counting a try, there are numerous books and online courses that promise to teach you. You are most likely not going to be good enough to trick the casinos, but you will definitely impress your mates the next time you play a friendly game of Blackjack. And the best part is that we have created a detailed guide to playing blackjack where you can find all the rules as well as the best blackjack casinos in the UK.

The Movie 21 – How Hollywood Made the MIT Blackjack Team Famous

At last, it is time to take a look at the movie 21, which popularised the MIT blackjack team and card counting as a whole. The plot revolves around the main character Ben Campbell(), who is recruited into the MIT blackjack team by his professor Micky Rosa, played by Kevin Spacey. The young man joins his fellow students and justifies his actions with the fact that he has no other way of paying his tuition debt of over $300,000. The six of them, led by their professor, head over to the iconic Las Vegas Strip and start hitting one casino after another. As it often happens in real life, they hit some severe setbacks, that in turn lead to the end of the MIT blackjack team. And while 21 is not the best movie out there, if you are into the whole card counting thing, you should definitely watch it!