zengrifter
Banned
Kids who tamed Vegas
May 26, 2005
Paul Kalina | TheAge.com
There are few things more enjoyable than watching a victimless crime unfold and few subjects more deserving of such a fate than a Las Vegas casino.
America's gambling authorities mightn't favour that view but American filmmaker Gordon Forbes III thinks it's a good enough reason to document the legendary achievements of a gang of university students who took on Las Vegas at its own game.
The practice of card counting, where blackjack players use a mathematical calculation to predict the probability of the house or the player winning the hand, was devised in the early 1960s by a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His teachings weren't forgotten. In the early 1990s, groups of students formed teams, complete with shadowy groups of investors, and converged on the gambling meccas of Vegas.
"They took Vegas for a ride but they didn't break the law and they didn't break the rules," Forbes says.
"No one really thought these guys are criminals. Spoilt kids, maybe, but they had a good thing going and everyone cheers someone who can take millions of dollars from Vegas casinos."
It's estimated that they netted between $6 million and $8 million and though that's a drop in the ocean for the casinos the students found themselves ejected or simply not admitted to the casinos.
Andrew Tay was an MIT student from 1993 to 2000. A keen card player since his early years, he was invited to join a team. After four trips to Vegas, he was hooked.
"Living the high roller lifestyle in Vegas isn't something most 21-year-olds get to experience," Tay (not his real name) told Green Guide from Los Angeles, where he is now a television writer. "It was a wild time," he says without a hint of apology or shame.
For some it was an intellectual thrill, for others it became a profession. For Tay, the lure was the lifestyle and the money.
"At 21 everyone wants to be James Bond, to walk into a casino and have a secret hand signal that allows you to sit where no one else can, place a $20,000 bet with no fear of losing and walk out the winner with the money, the smile, the girl, the tuxedo. At 21, that's a fantasy but that's pretty much what we were doing," he recalls.
Forbes says the documentary offers a non-blinkered view of blatant free-market capitalism.
"The students were just as capitalistic as the casinos. It was one group of capitalists working against another group. I think it's just a case that the gambling casinos are set up for one reason and one reason only and that's to take your money."
Tay has a more defiant view of the power casinos wield.
"You'd think they'd have a more enlightened view of what the game is and the fact that they've structured a game that is very significantly slanted to their advantage. They have a very businesslike attitude, which from the moment you walk in is to extract as much money (as they can).
"I think the entire idea of trying to legislate thought (in outlawing card counting), which is pretty much what they're doing, is despicable. Because what they're saying is 'we're providing a game and as long as I don't use my brain in a certain way I can play.' "
Ironically, Tay's last visit to Vegas was to speak to investors at the opening of a new casino.
"My introduction was basically 'I've no idea why you'd want me here, I'm the bad guy.' I told them what I don't like about the casino industry and that there are plenty of people in America for whom gambling is an addiction and a real problem."
And did he place a bet? "Sure I did, I've got to cover my costs," he laughs.
May 26, 2005
Paul Kalina | TheAge.com
There are few things more enjoyable than watching a victimless crime unfold and few subjects more deserving of such a fate than a Las Vegas casino.
America's gambling authorities mightn't favour that view but American filmmaker Gordon Forbes III thinks it's a good enough reason to document the legendary achievements of a gang of university students who took on Las Vegas at its own game.
The practice of card counting, where blackjack players use a mathematical calculation to predict the probability of the house or the player winning the hand, was devised in the early 1960s by a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His teachings weren't forgotten. In the early 1990s, groups of students formed teams, complete with shadowy groups of investors, and converged on the gambling meccas of Vegas.
"They took Vegas for a ride but they didn't break the law and they didn't break the rules," Forbes says.
"No one really thought these guys are criminals. Spoilt kids, maybe, but they had a good thing going and everyone cheers someone who can take millions of dollars from Vegas casinos."
It's estimated that they netted between $6 million and $8 million and though that's a drop in the ocean for the casinos the students found themselves ejected or simply not admitted to the casinos.
Andrew Tay was an MIT student from 1993 to 2000. A keen card player since his early years, he was invited to join a team. After four trips to Vegas, he was hooked.
"Living the high roller lifestyle in Vegas isn't something most 21-year-olds get to experience," Tay (not his real name) told Green Guide from Los Angeles, where he is now a television writer. "It was a wild time," he says without a hint of apology or shame.
For some it was an intellectual thrill, for others it became a profession. For Tay, the lure was the lifestyle and the money.
"At 21 everyone wants to be James Bond, to walk into a casino and have a secret hand signal that allows you to sit where no one else can, place a $20,000 bet with no fear of losing and walk out the winner with the money, the smile, the girl, the tuxedo. At 21, that's a fantasy but that's pretty much what we were doing," he recalls.
Forbes says the documentary offers a non-blinkered view of blatant free-market capitalism.
"The students were just as capitalistic as the casinos. It was one group of capitalists working against another group. I think it's just a case that the gambling casinos are set up for one reason and one reason only and that's to take your money."
Tay has a more defiant view of the power casinos wield.
"You'd think they'd have a more enlightened view of what the game is and the fact that they've structured a game that is very significantly slanted to their advantage. They have a very businesslike attitude, which from the moment you walk in is to extract as much money (as they can).
"I think the entire idea of trying to legislate thought (in outlawing card counting), which is pretty much what they're doing, is despicable. Because what they're saying is 'we're providing a game and as long as I don't use my brain in a certain way I can play.' "
Ironically, Tay's last visit to Vegas was to speak to investors at the opening of a new casino.
"My introduction was basically 'I've no idea why you'd want me here, I'm the bad guy.' I told them what I don't like about the casino industry and that there are plenty of people in America for whom gambling is an addiction and a real problem."
And did he place a bet? "Sure I did, I've got to cover my costs," he laughs.