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Sam Penrod reporting A new movie called "21" opens in theaters this weekend. It's based on some MIT students who won millions of dollars from casinos by counting cards.
Today, a member of that so-called "MIT Blackjack Team" shared his story with students at Utah Valley State College (UVSC).
The movie "21" is based on a group of students at MIT in the 1990s that, until they were caught, beat the system of blackjack using simple math and statistics.
David Irvine told students today, "There was this inflated perception that we were some math geniuses, and we really weren't. The only math we used to count cards was addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and that is the only math you use to count cards. After that, it's just practice."
Irvine told students at UVSC that practice in counting cards to their advantage resulted in the "team" winning tens of thousands of dollars on an average weekend in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
Over six years, they brought in about $10 million and insist they were never gambling. Irvine said, "Gambling is where you are risking money, when the odds are against you with this hope of hitting it rich, and we didn't do that. We never played. My entire time on the team, I never placed a bet at the craps table, I never pulled a slot machine, ever, I never played poker, I never played roulette. We never did that because you can't win at those games."
Irvine says the secret to beating the casino is knowing low cards benefit the house and high cards benefit the player.
He told students for every $100 you bet on blackjack, expect to always lose at least $2, but if you successfully count cards you can be the one to win that 2 percent. "People say it's still very risky. Well, I can calculate to the penny, how much I should expect to win if I play this long, given these conditions," Irvine said.
Because of their ability to put the odds in their favor, Irvine and other MIT students on his team are still kicked out of casinos any time they walk in.
Irvine is not getting any royalties from the movie "21," but he and another team member have their own blackjack consulting company and are working on two blackjack TV programs.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
