The MIT Blackjack Team

Four years ago, Wired ran a great story on a bunch of math wonks from MIT who used an amazingly clever blackjack strategy to clean Vegas out of millions of dollars. It's a bit long, but definitely worth the read.

The Wired article was actually adapted from the novel Bringing Down the House, which is available for download as an ebook (or, I suppose, as a regular book; but like Cory Doctorow, I prefer being able to read things on my Palm).

"One mistake can cost a team a large amount of their expected advantage," Lewis says. "We had these charts calculated out that could tell you what a single error in play costs in terms of profit."

After passing the BP exam, Lewis moved to real world application. During Lewis' first weekend in Vegas, the team made $100,000. He was hooked and soon became one of the team's premier players. Personally, he didn't have problems with the ethics of the venture. "It isn't really even gambling. It's no different than the stock market. We use our brains to earn a profit. It isn't illegal. And it isn't cheating."

Link to Wired story
Link to Bringing Down the House ebook