Blackjack and the Law — Loeb '73

By Robert Loeb, Class of 1973

In 1961, M.I.T. mathematician E. O. Thorp figured out that the game of casino blackjack could be beaten. He then went out and proved the effectiveness of the strategy he devised in a number of Nevada casinos. In the more than three decades since card counting has become a relentless cat-and-mouse game. Casinos now use computers to analyze the strategies of the players at their tables in order to identify the skillful players. They do everything they can to thwart skilled players, and it often seems like the law is on the casinos' side. All casino games, except blackjack, have a built-in house edge, a mathematically calculable advantage to the gaming establishment. The CEO's hate that blackjack can be legally beaten by a small percentage of skillful players who have studied and practiced card counting, but are the casinos going too far in their attempts to stop it? In order to protect their civil rights, casino players today must have a legal arsenal at their disposal. Blackjack and the Law is the foundation of that arsenal, bringing together 14 years of the syndicated columns of Attorney I. Nelson Rose with the commentary of Attorney Robert A. Loeb.