Bettie: Ed Thorp draws big crowd at keynote speech

[Bettie]

Click the link below for the full story in today's [I]LVRJ:

Card counting for Edward Thorp was about proving a mathematical formula, not making money.

When he authored "Beat the Dealer" in 1962, the first widely published book with a proven system for card counting, Thorp was a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology trying to improve a theory.

"I never did imagine I would make money at this," said Thorp, who was the keynote speaker at last week's World Game Protection Conference, a two-day gathering of casino surveillance professionals from the United States and 10 countries. "I thought it was a great mathematical problem."

CASINO SECURITY: Counting a legend

[Trapper]

Surveillance types swarming over Thorp with books to autograph. Sounds like Dawn of the Dead.

"Edward Thorp is completely instrumental to the gaming industry, period," Beaudoin said. "You're looking at 50 years later and people are just now using it the way you would of thought 30 years ago."

Not sure what the person quoted is talking about but I guess it is good to know they are just catching up to a 45 year old book.

From the article: "Despite his book, Thorp said the most he ever made playing blackjack was $11,000 in 20 hours of play at a Lake Tahoe casino during spring break from MIT."

$11,000 in 1961 dollars would be about $75,000 in today's dollars (adjusted for inflation). Not too bad for 20 hours of play. Must be pretty close to what a MIT professor's salary was at that time.