The Ivy League at the Blackjack Table?

The Idea

Take a few entrepreneurial young minds, give them an education from one of the best universities on the planet, and send them to the casino. What do you get? One of the most notorious hacking operations in gambling history. Contrary to some popular belief, the “MIT Blackjack Team” was not a single collection of players belonging to a single era, but rather a varying dynasty of MIT students and alumni that operated from the late seventies and into the 21st century.

Equipped with mathematical genius and a passion for strategic challenges, the team originally collected members to what was initially a club by posting flyers around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus. To those welcomed into its membership, it held evening practice sessions. What they eventually developed was a strategy to manipulate and exploit the benefits of card-counting to gain a greater advantage for the player and increase his odds of beating the house on each hand.

After a series of “tryouts” for new potential recruits from the university, the team set out with its meticulously-trained system of card-counting and table communication to the casino. They enjoyed corporate backing by investors who stuffed their pockets with hundred of thousands of dollars to apply to their venture. Varying reports of the team’s early success reported its earnings to stand between 1-10 million dollars. Throughout the years, team members have been caught or barred from the casino and newer, younger members have picked up the pieces and tried to keep the magic going.

Sketchy Business

Throughout the early years of the MIT team, a hazy mist of unclear behavior hovered over the team’s dealings. It has been reported that team members did not even meet the investors who were paying for their flights to the casino and for the money they were betting on.

The players wasted no time in putting up high bets at the blackjack tables and the winnings began to pour in the millions to the casino’s dismay. This was highly irregular by any statistical outlook formerly set by the casinos for their blackjack tables and almost immediately eyebrows were beginning to rise. Keep in mind these were still college students. They would often return to class on Monday mornings after an adventure at the casino in which they either won many thousands of dollars, or returned empty-handed. This inconsistency often worried the team and the investors alike. Fake identities and role-playing was also used by the team in an attempt to elude any suspicion.

Creative Innovation

The MIT blackjack brainchild was developed by Al Francesco (eventually elected to the Blackjack Hall of Fame). Francesco’s strategy was designed to make it difficult for casinos to detect card-counting on its tables. Many evenings in Boston were spent in apartments, classrooms and basements getting Francesco’s system down pat before sending the students off to Vegas. It took a good two years for Vegas casinos to catch on to what was going on at its tables.

MIT Blackjack Today

After being formed nearly thirty years ago, the MIT blackjack team has appeared in numerous articles, television programs, and even a documentary film. Knowledge of the team’s activities is now widespread among the casinos and each has developed ways in which to detect and prevent similar strategies. Many of the former players have gone on to various blackjack-related businesses such as authoring card-counting tutorials, conducting seminars and lecturing about their experiences with the team. The true heyday of the MIT blackjack team has come and gone, but its shock on Vegas will continue to be felt and talked about for many years to come. The power of the mind will never cease to amaze, and these college kids showed how one can transform his IQ to dollars.