The Man Who Won the Casino: The Story of Edward Thorpe, Gambling Theorist and Practitioner

Edward Thorpe was a mathematical scientist, but always striving to use science in real life. This ambition and tireless work helped him become the first man who answered the question — is it possible to win at online casinos? He invented a card-counting system and learned how to win at blackjack, roulette, and baccarat through science.

Edward Thorpe’s Childhood and the Beginning of his Love of Mathematics

The boy’s scientific potential was evident in his early childhood. He learned arithmetic very early, not only the simplest operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, but also square and cube roots.

At school, the future millionaire developed an interest in other sciences – radio engineering, electronics, chemistry and physics. He not only studied theory, but also used it in practice – he assembled a radio receiver and set up a home chemistry laboratory in which he conducted his own experiments.

Towards the end of school Edward Thorpe began to think about the mechanics of roulette and the probability of getting a particular result. However, he was not yet interested in gambling — he only saw a connection between the roulette wheel and the planets in orbit.

One day he heard from his English teacher that it was impossible to beat a casino. It was then that Edward became interested in the field of gambling, for he told his teacher that he would do it one day.

Scientific Activities

After high school, Edward Thorpe went to the University of California, received a degree in mathematics and immediately began teaching at his alma mater, and later moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He combined his teaching with scientific research, and it was then that he began to look for answers to the question — how to beat the casino at roulette and blackjack. Fortunately, his method can be used not only in land-based establishments, but also in 5 euro deposit casinos.

Edward Thorpe and Professor Claude Shannon together tried to develop a winning strategy for roulette. Having bought an old roulette wheel, they created a portable computer, and with it an interesting game system that yielded results. However, it was inconvenient to use it in practice, so the scientists stopped working with roulette.

Counting cards

Blackjack was next in line. Edward Thorpe was convinced that there was a way to win at this game using mathematics, and decided to find it. To do this he used a university computer. The scientist created a huge number of combinations to understand the mechanics and mathematics of the game, and performed thousands of calculations.

As a result, he got a system that could determine the probability that a particular card would be next. The scientist researched that “junior” cards were more likely to play into the hands of the croupier and the casino, while “senior” cards were more likely to play into the hands of the player. Accordingly, by keeping a close eye on the game and the cards that come out and stay in the deck, one can understand the player’s chances of winning and lower or raise the stakes.

In 1960, Edward Thorpe devised a system of counting “tens” which he considered optimal for playing and winning blackjack. According to this system, the player had to keep track of the ratio of other cards to the “tens” (10, Jack, Queen, King) that remained in the deck.

There are 52 cards in a full blackjack deck — 16 tens and 36 other cards. So the initial ratio is 36:16 = 2.25. When the number of other cards decreases, so does the ending ratio, and vice versa. That is, if the ratio is calculated as a number less than 2.25 — the player has more chances to win and the bet can be increased, if on the contrary — the bet should be decreased.

Under this system, the player, for example, at 1 euro deposit casinos, stays in the winnings, because he gets a good result when he makes large bets, and it compensates for losses with small bets.

How Edward Thorpe Won Casinos

Edward Thorpe and his blackjack winning system began to be written about in the press. Because of this, rich people were interested in him, who offered the scientist financial support to test the strategy in practice.

The media often talked about Thorpe rather sceptically and portrayed him as a liar and a swindler. That is why he enlisted the support of two New York millionaires, Emanuel Kimmel and his partner Eddie Hend.

The mathematician explained his system to the businessmen, and the three men went to a casino in Reno to test it out with $10,000. They played blackjack in various casinos and doubled their capital in 30 hours — at the end of the gambling marathon they had $21,000.

After that, rumours about Edward Thorpe and his card-counting spread across the United States. Casino owners sounded the alarm and gambling enthusiasts became interested in the scientist’s system.

This demand led to Edward Thorpe publishing his first book, Beat the Dealer, in 1962, in which he explained the card-counting system in an easy-to-understand way. It was a resounding success, becoming a bestseller and selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

However, the book changed the course of things, both in the gambling world and in Edward Thorpe’s life. The casinos began to keep a close eye on blackjack players, to identify those who were using Thorpe’s system, and to ban them from playing and visiting the casinos.

Not only was Thorpe himself kept away from the gaming tables, but his life was threatened. He had to camouflage himself and hide to avoid being caught by the local bandits.

When a mathematician became interested in baccarat, and travelled to Las Vegas to test the scoring system on this game, he did win, but nearly said goodbye to his life. He was drugged into a drink and kicked out of the casino where he won $2,500.

When he and his companions were returning home, the company almost had an accident due to brake problems. It turned out that one part was missing from the braking system. Realising that further gambling in the casino would be even more dangerous, Edward Thorpe said goodbye to the world of gambling and began to conquer another sphere.

Edward Thorpe later used his knowledge of probability theory and static analysis in the stock market. He delved deeper into the world of investments, became one of the major players on Wall Street, founded 2 hedge funds of his own and made a million-dollar fortune.

Thanks to Edward Thorpe, hundreds of thousands of players around the world have become interested in blackjack. If you want to play that game, you can choose the best casino for you here.