MIT card-counters advise Vegas casino chiefs
Two former students of the illustrious Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been on the road telling eager audiences of how they fleeced Las Vegas casinos for millions of dollars through their early-90’s card-counting exploits.
Mike Aponte and Dave Irvine were part of a team that made huge wins at the city’s blackjack tables through learning a card counting technique developed by an MIT professor in the 60s.
At their peak they were raking in $500,000 a weekend and, not surprisingly, their story is set to be told in a forthcoming movie starring Kevin Spacey.
However, while card-counting is not illegal in the US, the pair have now joined forces with the country’s casinos and are working with gaming executives to help venues minimise their losses.
Speaking at the recent Global Gaming Expo, held in Las Vegas, Irvine warned that the old MIT method has since been improved upon, meaning casinos are having to work to keep up with the developments.
“We made 99.9 percent of our money counting cards the old-fashioned way,” he told the audience.
“I have a way of beating the casinos with a different twist and that’s what the casinos need to stay up on. I’m not going to tell you what it is.”