Famous Mathematicians of Gambling Mathematics and gambling dont go along.

Gambling houses are always on the look out of mentalist, card counters & mathematicians who try to beat the system and make money. In the last seventy years or so there have been a couple of famous Mathematicians, who have tried their theories to beat the gambling houses. Some of these persons have been recorded in the history of gambling and famous books & movies have been made of their lives. One very famous Mathematician, who had a fascination for gambling, especially Black jack was the MIT lecturer Edward O. Thorp. After getting his PhD, he was hired by MIT. Thorp was so much fascinated with Black Jack & the theory to break the system, that he even introduced a paper called Fortunes Formula. This paper introduced some of the early formulas Edwin Thorp has developed regarding Black Jacks models. He had tested these formulas on the historical computer IBM 704 and presented the paper to the famous American Mathematical Associations meeting in 1961.

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To test his theories in the practical laboratory of a casino he joined hands with a New York Businessman Emmanuel Kimmel. They went to Nevada to play Black Jack with card counting techniques, which at that time were never even head of. Initially they started with an investment $1000. It is said that by time they completed their first trip, they had already doubled their investment. Edwards Thorp was among the initial persons, who came out with card counting techniques to bust the gambling house. Thorp further went to test his theories in the stock market too & has also authored some books on the same topics. Another famous person who mastered the technique of card counting and made millions in 1970s was the famous Ken Uston. He was a Mathematical genius who was a part of the Yale University at only the age of 16. He further went to get his Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. Ken traveled the world making thousand of dollars at various casinos in the world. Later he met with Keith Taft, who was genius electronic engineers who had made a prototype of computer that could play the game of Black Jack. The device was so small that it could be worn without easy detection. Their team minted thousand of dollars at the casinos of Las Vegas and even more at the casinos of Atlantic City. Finally

they were discovered and barred from entering casinos. Another person, whose name needs to be considered, is Stanford Wong. In 1070s and 1980s Stanford Wong took the studies Thorp much further. He worked upon the theories of Black Jack geniuses, which were there before him. Wong is rightly honored with the title of being the Godfather of Black Jack. Today the concept of card counting is popularly known as Wonging. Wong was among the first mathematicians to finally beat the Continuous Shuffle Machines popularly known as CSMs. Wong, made a bundle of cash from casinos, before they finally decided to remove the CSMs. The CSMs were later introduced with some tweaking. The history of mathematicians trying to bring the gambling house down is very interesting and there are a lot of other figures who have made innovative contributions.