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Casino Owners Part3

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Kirk Kerkorian

Kerk Kerkorian is one of the most experienced and sophisticated casino owners of the gambling industry. In fact, he can be considered as one of the living legends of the “fathers of Las Vegas”.

Tracinda

Kirk Kerkorian

Kirk Kerkorian was born in 1917 in the family of Armenian emigrants in Fresno, California. A school drop-out in 8th grade, he picked up boxing and participated in single combats. He became a fairly skilled amateur boxer under the tutelage of his older brother, fighting under the name “Rifle Right Kerkorian” to win the Pacific amateur welterweight championship.

In 1939, at the age of 22, he installed wall furnaces that heated water for Ted O’Flaherty. One day, Ted O’Flaherty was taking flying lessons, and Kirk Kerkorian accompanied him to take a guest seat. He was inspired by the experience, in particular the views of the Californian coast and decided to quit boxing and made a switch to become a pilot.

Although he anticipated the oncoming of World War II, he was unwilling to join the military forces. Instead he took up a flying course at the Happy Bottom Riding Club in the Mojave Desert located adjacent to the USAF’s Muroc Field. This Happy Bottom Riding Club is the present Edwards Air Force Base that we all know today. In exchange for the flying lessons from pioneer aviatrix Pancho Barnes, he agreed to milk and look after her cattle.

Qualified as a commercial pilot in six months, Kirk Kerkorian became a pilot of British royal air force during World War II. Kirk Kerkorian learned that the British Royal Air Force was ferrying Canadian built de Havilland Mosquitos over the north Atlantic to Scotland. The Havilland Mosquito’s fuel tank carried enough fuel for 1,400 miles (2,300 km), while the trip directly was 2,200 miles (3,500 km). The safer route was the Montreal–Labrador–Greenland–Iceland–Scotland route while going further north with the direct “Iceland Wave” route could encounter the risk of the wings icing and distorting, and the plane crashing. Despite the danger, Kirk Kerkorian chose the perilous direct “Iceland Wave” route which blew the planes at jet-speed to Europe. The fee was US$1,000 per flight, but the statistics were that only one in four completed the journey. In May 1944, Kirk Kerkorian and his Wing Commander J.D. Woolridge flew the Iceland Wave and broke the old crossing record. Woolridge got to Scotland in six hours, 46 minutes while Kirk Kerkorian did it in seven hours and nine minutes. Working for two and a half years with RAF Ferry Command, Kirk Kerkorian delivered 33 planes, logged thousands of hours, travelled to four continents and flew his first four-engine plane.

After the war, and having saved most of his wages, Kirk Kerkorian bought a Cessna for US$5,000. He worked as a general aviation pilot, and made his first visit to Las Vegas in 1944. After spending much time in Las Vegas, Kirk Kerkorian quit gambling and in 1947 paid US$60,000 for Trans International Airlines, which was a small air-charter service which flew gamblers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. This business was subsequently sold for US$108,000,000 in 1968.

Kirk Kerkorian was able to visualize the huge potential of Las Vegas. In 1962, he bought 80 acres of land on the famous Las Vegas Strip, not far from the legendary casino “Flamingo”. The land at that time cost him US$960,000. It was a wise investment because at that time gambling boom had just started and many companies became interested in gambling industry. The renowned casino “Caesars Palace” was built on his land, which he granted on lease. In 1969 he sold it with a net profit of more than 9 million dollars.

In 1967 Kirk Kerkorian bought 82 more acres of land on Paradise Road in Las Vegas for US$5 million. Together with architect Martin Stern, the partnership build an “International Hotel”, which was the largest hotel in the world during that time. In order to make the hotel popular and attractive, Kirk Kerkorian hired Elvis Presley for concerts. The first two performers to appear at the hotel’s enormous Showroom Internationale were Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley. Presley brought in some 4,200 customers and potential gamblers, every day, for 30 days in a row, hence breaking all attendance records in the county’s history. At that time he also bought the casino “Flamingo”, which he subsequently sold in 1970 to the corporation “Hilton”.

1973 was a crucial year for Kirk Kerkorian. The Kerkorian-Martin Stern partnership practically put all the eggs in one basket when they bought the film maker “MGM Studio” and turned it into the casino-hotel “MGM Grand“. Larger than the Empire State Building, the MGM Grand became the biggest in the world for many years.

On 21st November 1980, fire broke out in the the original MGM Grand. This was one of the worst disasters in Las Vegas history. The Clark County Fire Department reported 84 deaths in the fire. There were 87 deaths in total, including three which occurred later as a result of injuries sustained in the fire. Amazingly, the MGM Grand reopened after only 8 months. Almost three months after the MGM fire, the Las Vegas Hilton also caught fire, killing eight people.

In 1986, Kirk Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand hotels in Las Vegas and Reno for US$594 million to Bally Manufacturing. The Las Vegas property was subsequently renamed Bally. Spun off from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM Resorts International owned and operated several properties, including the Bellagio, the current MGM Grand resort complex, The Mirage, the New York-New York, Circus Circus, Mandalay Bay, The Luxor, Excalibur and the newly completed CityCenter in Las Vegas.

In 1990, the MGM Studio was purchased by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti. However, Parretti defaulted on the loans he’d used to buy the studio, leaving the studio in the hands of the French bank, Credit Lyonnais. Credit Lyonnais invested significant sums to revive the moribund MGM Studio and eventually sold it back to Kirk Kerkorian in 1996. Kirk Kerkorian soon expanded the company, purchasing Orion Pictures, The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Motion Picture Corporation of America from John Kluge’s Metromedia in 1998, and a majority to the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment from its parent Philips, which was in process to sell PolyGram to Seagram. Seagram eventually merged with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment into Universal Studios. In 1995 Universal Studios merged with Motion Picture Corporation of America.

In 2005, Kirk Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand once more to a consortium led by Sony. He retained a 55% stake in MGM Mirage.

Kirk Kerkorian also owned the corporation “Tracinda“, which has the controlling stock of “MGM Mirage” casinos in Nevada, New Jersey and Macao.

On 22nd November 2006, Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda investment corporation offered to buy 15 million shares of MGM Mirage to increase his stake in the gambling giant to 61.7% from 56.3%.

In May 2009, following the completion of a US$1 billion dollar stock offering by MGM Mirage, Kirk Kerkorian and Tracinda lost their majority ownership of the gaming company, dropping from 53.8 percent to 39 percent and even after pledging to purchase 10 percent of the new stock offering they now remain minority owners. Although they are minority owners, they are still controlling shareholders.

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Automobile industry

Tracinda

Kirk Kerkorian

Kirk Kerkorian’s interests are not limited only to gambling industry. Kirk Kerkorian first involved in the automobile industry in 1995. Since then, his investment interests in automobile industry includes General Motors, Chrysler Corporation and Ford Motor Company.

He owned 10% of the shares of General Motors (GM). When GM ran into financial trouble, Kirk Kerkorian suggested a rescue proposal that Renault acquire a 20 percent stake in GM. A letter from Tracinda to Rick Wagoner was released to the public, to influence the board of GM’s executives. Unfortunately, the talks failed. On 22nd November 2006, Kirk Kerkorian sold 14 million shares of his GM stake. The sale resulted in GM’s share price falling 4.1% from its 20th November price, although it remained above US$30 per share. The sale lowered Kirk Kerkorian’s holding to around 7% of GM. On 30th November 2006 Tracinda said it had agreed to sell another 14 million shares of GM, cutting Kirk Kerkorian’s stake to half of what it had been earlier that year. By the end of November 2006, he had sold substantially all of his remaining GM shares. As a result of the sell off, GM lost more than 90% of its value, falling as low as US$1 per share by May 2009, and filed bankruptcy on 1st June, 2009.

In 1995, Kirk Kerkorian made his debut in the automobile industry by staging a takeover attempt on the Chrysler Corporation. Although he was assisted by retired Chrysler chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca, the Chrysler management treated the takeover as hostile, and after a lengthy battle, Kirk Kerkorian aborted his plans and sold his Chrysler stake in 1996. As part of the settlement, Iacocca was placed under a gag order forbidding him from discussing Chrysler in public or print for five years. However, two years later in 1998, Chrysler management agreed to sell the corporation to German automaker Daimler-Benz.

On 5th April 2007, Kirk Kerkorian made a US$4.58 billion bid for the Chrysler Group, the U.S. arm of Daimler-Chrysler. After Daimler-Chrysler announced they were interested in selling the Chrysler division on 14th February 2007, large investors such as Cerberus Capital Management, The Blackstone Group and Magna International each announced intentions to bid on the company. Kerkorian’s bid, while not expected, was not surprising given his long involvement in the U.S. automobile industry. During the bidding process, he sought the aid of his close associate Jerome York who was a former Chief Financial Officer at both Chrysler and IBM. On 14th May 2007, 80% of the Chrysler arm of Daimler-Chrysler was sold to Cerberus for US$7.4 billion.

Kirk Kerkorian began buying Ford Motor Company stock in April 2008, and spent about US$1 billion to accumulate a 6% stake in the automaker. By October 2008, the investment had lost two thirds of its value, and he began selling. Tracinda explained, “In light of current economic and market conditions, it sees unique value in the gaming and hospitality and oil and gas industries and has, therefore, decided to re-allocate its resources and to focus on those industries. On 21st October, Tracinda sold the 7.3 million Ford shares at an average price of US$2.43, and said it planned to cut further its existing 6.1 percent stake in Ford, for a potential total loss of more than half a billion dollars. Kirk Kerkorian sold his remaining stake in Ford on 29th December 2008.

Personal life

Tracinda

Kirk Kerkorian

Married three times, Kirk Kerkorian met his second wife Jean Maree Harbour-Hardy by chance at the Thunderbird, in Las Vegas. Ms. Harbour-Hardy, an accomplished choreographer and dancer from England, travelled the world instructing dance troupes. By chance, they met and fell in love while she was sent to check opportunities to choreograph a performance in Las Vegas. The second marriage was his most enduring marriage lasting thirty years from 1954 to 1984. Kirk Kerkorian’s two daughters, Tracy and Linda were the legacies of this marriage. The name of Kirk Kerkorian’s personal holding company, Tracinda Corporation and The Lincy Foundation are hybrids of the two daughters’ names. Although divorced in 1984, they remain close friends. Ms. Harbour-Hardy Kerkorian is financially successful in her own right.

Kirk Kerkorian was in fact blackmailed by woman conspiracy in his short-lived third marriage in 1999. He married a professional tennis player Lisa Bonder, 48 years his junior, which under a prenuptial agreement lasted only one month. He subsequently was blackmailed in a breach of privacy suit filed against him by Steve Bing. Fortunately, Kirk Kerkorian had the resources to hire Anthony Pellicano to wiretap telephone calls illegally between Kirk Kerkorian and Lisa Blonder in order to gain a tactical advantage in the divorce proceedings. Kirk Kerkorian claimed Bing was the father of Bonder’s daughter, which was later established by DNA testing.

On August 10, 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that Kirk Kerkorian’s attorneys were being sued by Lisa Bonder because of their connection to former high-profile private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who is currently serving a fifteen-year prison sentence for running an illegal wiretapping scheme.

Kirk Kerkorian often plays tennis with Alex Yemenidjian, a former MGM executive but is now co-owner of the Tropicana Las Vegas resort. He has a penchant for expensive clothes especially the custom-made outfits by Italian designer Brioni, but drives relatively low cost vehicles such as a Pontiac Firebird, Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Ford Taurus.

Kirk Kerkorian splits his time between his residences in Beverly Hills, California and Las Vegas. Although he is the richest person in Los Angeles, he almost never gave interviews and seldom appeared in public. Even though his charitable foundation has dispensed more than US$200 million and a school, he had never allowed anything to be named in his honour. On 14th February 2011, Kirk Kerkorian donated The Lincy Foundation to the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA, to create the “Dream Fund at UCLA”. The Lincy Foundation is worth about US$200 million. He received the Mesrob Mashdots Medal from the Republic of Armenia for his services to Armenia and its people in 2001.

Wealth

His net worth in 2008, according to Forbes magazine, was US$16.0 billion, making him the world’s 41st richest person at that time. By 2011, Kirk Kerkorian was among those hardest hit by stock market recession as his net worth tumbled to US$3.2 billion. He is currently listed as the 310th richest person.

Conclusion

This is an interesting post with lots of lessons to be learnt if you want to be successful in gambling and money. I will update them in due course to highlight the key-points.


Casino Owners Part2.

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Casino Owners Part2.

In Part1 you have seen the biography of Stanley Ho.

Now, we take a look at one of the American casino owners Sheldon Adelson.

At present, Sheldon Adelson is the richest among the casino owners of the world. He owns the corporation “Las Vegas Sands“, which controls the casino-hotel “Venetian” in Las Vegas, the Venetian Macao and the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

The life of Sheldon Adelson is a classical story of an American dream. Sheldon Adelson was born in 1933 in the Dorchester neighbourhood of Boston in a poor Jewish-Ukrainian emigrant family. His Lithuanian-born father was a taxi driver and an advertisement salesman.

He had to work since early childhood. He made his first money by selling newspapers as a street boy. He started a business selling toiletry kits, and in the 1960s he started a charter tours business. Sheldon Adelson went to college at the City College of New York, but dropped out to venture into business.

Despite having limited formal education, this self-made man, soon became one of the best financiers in the United States. He worked as a mortgage broker, investment adviser and financial consultant. Through his work as a financial advisor, he helped to improve the financial situations of more than 50 companies.

From the 1970s, Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and their three adopted children, Mitchell, Gary and Shelley. They divorced in 1988. Mitchell died of a drug overdose in 2005.

Sheldon Adelson met his current wife Miriam Ochsorn on a blind date in 1989 and married after two years of courtship in 1991. Miriam Ochsorn is an Israeli physician specializing in drug abuse treatment.

As an entrepreneur, Sheldon Adelson believed in the future of IT technologies. The international show-exhibition of IT-technologies “COMDEX” was his brainchild. The computer trade show COMDEX, which he and his partners developed for the computer industry was the original source of Sheldon Adelson‘s wealth. The first show was held in 1979. It was the premier computer trade show through much of the 1980s and 1990s. In 1995, Sheldon Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Corporation of Japan for US$862 million.

Sheldon Adelson first entered the casino industry in 1989 by taking over the casino-hotel “Sands” in Las-Vegas from Frank Sinatra. In order to bring to Las Vegas a new source of business from the exhibition industry, he decides to transform Las Vegas into the international business centre, with view to attract rich entrepreneurs and convert them into potential players to his casino. The following year, Sheldon Adelson and his partners constructed the Sands Expo and Convention centre, then the only privately owned and operated convention centre in the United States.

Las Vegas Sands

Venetian Las Vegas

In 1991, while on honeymoon vacation in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Sheldon Adelson found the inspiration for a mega-resort hotel. He renovated the Las Vegas Sands and invested one and a half billion dollars to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino. In 2003, The Venetian added the 1,013-suite Venezia tower – giving the hotel 4,049 suites; 18 leading-chef restaurants; a shopping mall and all this at the background of Venetian channels, with gondolas sailing and gondoliers singing their famous songs. The new casino was targeted not only at ordinary players, but also at wealthy businessmen who came to his new business centre. As many experts acknowledge, “Venetian” is one of the most beautiful casino-hotels in the world.

In 2004, Sheldon Adelson spearheaded a major project to introduce Sands into Macau, the Chinese gambling city that had been a Portuguese colony until December 1999. Sheldon Adelson opened the casino “Venetian” in Macao, the first casino of Las Vegas type in Asia. The one million-square-foot Venetian Macao became the People’s Republic of China’s first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. Sheldon Adelson made back his initial US$265 million investment in nine months and, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Since the opening of the Venetian Macao, Sheldon Adelson‘s personal wealth has multiplied more than fourteen times.

Sands Venetian Macau

Venetian Macau

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Even though Cotai was a marsh swampy land, Sheldon Adelson visualized the creation of Cotai into an Asian counterpart of the Las Vegas Strip. In August 2007, Las Vegas Sands opened the US$2.6 billion Venetian Macao, a supersized version of its Vegas namesake with 3,000 rooms, a million square feet (93,000 square meters) of convention space, an 800,000 square foot shopping mall, and the world’s largest casino. In August 2008, Las Vegas Sands followed up its expansion plans by opening the Four Seasons Hotel next to the Venetian in Cotai.

The next project is Sands Cotai Central, originally slated to open in 2009 but mothballed due to the global financial crisis of 2008 that pushed Las Vegas Sands to the brink of bankruptcy.

“The opening of Sands Cotai Central is a game-changer for the future of Macau as a leisure, entertainment and business location,” Sheldon Adelson said. “Having changed Las Vegas to a city of convention, business and leisure tourism, we’re going to make Macau a city of convention and leisure tourism.”

Sands China, a company registered in Hong Kong is a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands. Sands China owns and operates the US$4.4 billion Sands Cotai Central casino resort project. Opened on the 11th April 2012, it is the biggest piece of the world’s largest tourism development project.

Sands Cotai Central as the anchor point of the Cotai Strip is the pathway to adventure, fun and fortune. Boasting of the three celebrated hotel brands of Conrad, Sheraton and Holiday Inn, Sands Cotai Central offers visitors to the Cotai Strip a spectacular range of affordable luxurious facilities with about 6,000 hotel rooms and suites, and 1.2 million square feet of retail, entertainment and dining amenities, and meetings and convention space. Shoppes Cotai Central offers nearly 100 retail outlets two spas, three health clubs and 300,000 square feet of gaming space in two, uniquely-themed gaming centres.

Along with Sands China’s Venetian Macao and Four Seasons Macao hotels, they’ve been built on what was formerly unwanted marshy swamp linking Macau’s outlying islands, Coloane and Taipa.

Sands China has successfully transformed the Cotai marshy swamp into the look and feel of Las Vegas strip. Driving into the Cotai strip, you will be welcomed by the Galaxy’s Asian fantasy palaces, then the Gothic Venetian, the sparkle and shimmer of City of Dreams, and the blazing video boards of Sands Cotai Central.

Las Vegas Sands really knows how to think big, plan and expand. A new Macau casino on a plot called Parcel 3 is slated to be Sands’ biggest project in China since it opened its US$4 billion Sands Cotai casino on the 11th April 2012.

Sands China reported that the local government in Macau extended the deadline for completion of Parcel 3 by three years, to April 2016, for an unspecified penalty. The company has reportedly already spent nearly US$97 million on construction and land costs at the site.

If the company had not been granted the extension, it could have lost its land rights and the investments already made, US$96.7 million, according to Las Vegas Sands’ 2011 annual report. Sands China is expecting to pay the government a penalty fee for the construction delay, according to a company announcement. The new Parcel 3 will be connected to The Venetian Macau and Four Seasons Macau. Sands China spokeswoman said that the casino developer was behind schedule because it had been focusing on another project—the US$5 billion Sands Cotai Central, a casino resort on the Cotai Strip that opened on the 11th April 2012. Cotai as a strip of largely undeveloped, reclaimed land badly needed the investment from the casino operators to draw more of the Chinese tourists in order to boost the Macau’s revenue. According to official data, Macau earned up to five times the gambling revenue of the Las Vegas strip in Nevada.

In May 2006, Sheldon Adelson‘s Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Singapore’s Marina Bay. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumoured cost of US$5.9 billion. It includes a shopping mall, convention centre, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.

Marina Bay Sands

Marina Bay Sands

The latest news is that Sheldon Adelson said he plans to spend US$35 billion on a mini-Las Vegas strip in Spain, where he is courting the country’s two top urban areas, Barcelona and Madrid, with plans for a casino complex.

“We are looking at 12 integrated resorts, 3,000 rooms each. A mini Las Vegas, about half the size of the Las Vegas strip in Spain for the European market,” said Sheldon Adelson. “Each building would cost between US$2.5 billion and US$3 billion and target customers are from western and eastern Europe.”

As of march 2012, Sheldon Adelson’s wealth is estimated at 24.9 billion.


Casino Owners Part1

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Casino Owners Part1

Sharks, Fishes, Thieves and Whales

In the casino industry, the owners are commonly referred to as sharks, the recreational gamblers as fishes, the professional gamblers as thieves and the high rollers as whales.

Needless to say, there are real personalities behind the gambling industry. Some people consider them as talented businessmen, respect them and learn from them. Others, conversely, condemn them as ruthless sharks. Admittedly, these people are extraordinary, often very adventurous, but at the same time they have business acumen, able to smell money and feel the demands of the time. They take calculated risks and can correctly predict the potential of their enterprises. The truth is such people amass millions of dollars from the gambling industry.

Lisboa Hotel Casino

Lisboa

Stanley Ho is the wealthiest player of the casino industry in Asia. He holds the monopoly of the casino industry in Macau for almost 40 years.

Stanley Ho was born in 1921 in Hong Kong. His great-grandfather was a wealthy Dutch Jew who married a local woman. The Ho family was one of the most renowned and influential in Hong Kong. But Stanley Ho was not able to make use of the wealth of this family. His father went bankrupt, when Stanley Ho was a student. Owing to the financial collapse his two brothers committed suicide, and his father renounced his family and left Stanley Ho with two sisters and mother. Despite all hardships, he successfully graduated from Hong Kong University and mastered at least three languages.

Stanley Ho started his career in a trade company, located in Macao. Outstanding business skills and proficiency in several languages propelled him to become a shareholder of the company at the young tender age of 21. Stanley Ho received his first fortune as a result of a fateful incident. Stanley Ho was responsible for sea trade. During one of the voyages the ship which carried a large amount of money aboard was attacked by the pirates. While many of his fellow employees were killed, Stanley Ho successfully defeated the pirates and returned both the money and the ship. The company duly appreciated the courage of Stanley Ho and rewarded him a bonus of one million!

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Lisboa Macau

Lisboa

In 1943 during the Second World War, Stanley Ho invested the whole million into the construction industry in Hong Kong. At this time Hong Kong underwent a real construction boom, and Stanley Ho received very good returns from his business. However, his ambitions were not limited to construction business. Together with his partners, Hong Kong tycoon the late Henry Fok, a Macau professional gambler the late Yip Hon and his brother-in-law the late Teddy Yip, he won the tender for the monopoly right to open gambling institutions in Macao. Stanley Ho won the tender with the sum of only 410 thousand dollars, outbeating the traditional Macau casino barons, the Fu family.

For almost 40 years Stanley Ho‘s company Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, holds the monopoly of Macao gambling industry. Stanley Ho invests all his money and skills in this company. By 1972 he owns nine casinos, including his flagship casino-hotel “Lisboa”, which is one of the most beautiful casinos of the world.

Apart from Hong Kong and Macau, he has also invested in mainland China, Portugal, North Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mozambique and East Timor. In the 90s, Stanley Ho opened nine casinos in the Philippines. Unfortunately, Stanley Ho had to renounce his Philippine business as a result of an undisclosed conflict with the president of Philippines. Apart from the casino, Stanley Ho also owned many betting operators and totalizators. In 2003 the revenue of Macao grew by 30% consisted mainly of taxes from the activities of the companies operated by Stanley Ho. His business provided work to more than 10 thousand people. In 1998 a local street in Macau was named in honour of Stanley Ho. Stanley Ho became one of the first to be bestowed such honour as a living resident.

Lisboa Macau

Lisboa

As expected, the gambling monopoly has to end. In 2000, the Macao authorities decided to remove the monopoly for the gambling industry. Since 2002, Stanley Ho has to share the gambling industry with the American “sharks” – Wynn and Adelson, who immediately seized the opportunity to learn more about the Asian market. In 2011 Stanley Ho was the 13th richest man in Hong Kong with a net worth of US$2 billion.

During the recent few years Stanley Ho has been struggling with litigation suits with his own sister, Winnie Ho, over the ownership of the Macau casinos. In July 2009, Stanley Ho suffered a stroke. As he endured through a prolonged period of convalescence and recovery, he began to take steps to release his grip on his casino empire and started to delegate and transfer ownership to his various wives and children.

Casino industry

gambling industry


Casino movies and gambling movies

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Casino movies and gambling movies

Las Vegas and its casinos have always been an inspiration for film producers looking to inject excitement and intrigue into their movies.

‘Ocean’s Eleven’ is historically one of the most famous casino movies with a Las Vegas backdrop. This 1960 casino film is directed by Lewis Milestone. In this movie, the members of the original ‘Rat Pack’, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, plan to rob five of the top casinos in Vegas in a single night.

A gang of World War II 82nd Airborne veterans are recruited by Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) and Jimmy Foster (Lawford) to rob five different Las Vegas casinos on a single night. The target casinos are Desert Inn, Riviera, Sahara, Sands and The Flamingo.

The gang plans the elaborate New Year’s Eve heist with the precision of a military operation. Josh Howard (Davis) takes a job driving a garbage truck while others work to keep a close watch on the five casinos.

At exactly midnight, while everyone in every Vegas casino is singing the count-down, the electrical system is blown up and Vegas goes dark. The back-up electrical systems open the cashier cages instead of turning on the emergency lights. The inside gang members slip into the cashier cages and scoop the money. They dump the bags of loot into the hotel’s garbage bins, and then return to mingle with the crowds. As soon as the lights return, the robbers move out of the casinos. A garbage truck driven by Josh Howard picks up the bags and passes through the police check-point. Things go according to plan at least until after the robberies.

‘Ocean’s Eleven’ was remade successfully in 2001 by Steven Soderburgh, who cast George Clooney as the leader of Danny Ocean. Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Elliott Gould cast as gang members. The 2001 remade enhanced the storyline while still convey the same glamorous image of Vegas as the original 1960 movie.

‘Rounders’ is the 1998 casino movie where Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) is one of the world’s best poker players. He has given up the game in order to concentrate on finishing law school. Worm (Edward Norton) is his old friend. When he is released from prison, he persuades McDermott to return to the game in order to pay off some bad debts he’s accrued. McDermott then finds himself playing in a series of poker games where the stakes are increasing and the tension is high.

‘Honeymoon in Vegas’ is a comedy movie that offers plenty of laughs. This 1992 comedy tells the story of Jack Singer (played by Nicholas Cage) who decides to wed his long-time partner Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker) in Las Vegas. However, when they arrive, Betsy is earmarked by a high-stake gambler who decides he wants to have her companion for the weekend. He engages Jack Singer in poker games with view to win her from him. With Nicholas Cage acting his best as the love-struck bridegroom, James Caan as the sinister gambler, and a number of Elvis impersonators, ‘Honeymoon in Vegas’ is truly played by a great casts of comedians.

‘Casino’ is the 1995 movie directed by Martin Scorcese. It is considered by many to be the definitive casino film. It has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. The details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970s and 1980s are revealed. This movie tells the true story of Sam Ace Rothstein, a gangster who moves to Las Vegas and becomes the operator of the Tangiers casino. Robert De Niro makes the lead role his own. Rothstein not only struggles with marriage to a drug addict (played by Sharon Stone) but also with a fellow gangster, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci).

To enhance this post, I have two movies in my classicmovie site to share with you.

The first is Ransom Money. This movie is nothing great but I like to see the glamorous image and scenaries of Las Vegas in the 70s. In addition, the song “My Mum and I” sung by Bob Engermann is really nice. It is typical of the songs of the seventies. You can view the movie at my classicmovie site

Flash format

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Ransom Money

My Mum and I

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mp4 format

Ransom Money

The Boy with Time-Bomb

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The second movie is The Belle Starr Story. Abused physically and psychologically by men, Belle Starr now out-performs men in riding, smoking, shooting and gambling. However, Blackie out-gambles her in a poker game which leads to a turbulent relationships. Together they become involved in a diamond robbery which turns awry. Belle has to rescue Blackie.

“The Belle Starr Story” (1968) is probably the only Spaghetti Western ever directed by a woman, Lina Wertmüller. She was the first woman director to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Direction, for “Seven Beauties” (1976).

You can view the movie at my classicmovie site.

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Enjoy the casino movies.

'Ocean Eleven"

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Blackjack Team Play

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Blackjack Team Play

As you may have already known from the previous post, both Ken Uston and Al Francesco were two of the original inductees during the Blackjack Hall of Fame held in Barona Casino in 2003. And the 2004 Blackjack Hall of Fame was none other than Keith Taft. However, the rise and fall of the MIT blackjack team was a historical landmark in blackjack team play.

In the late 70s, Al Francesco probably created the first blackjack team in history. He selected the team members, trained them in Lawrence Revere’s card counting system and sent them to play. He invented and put into practice the principle of “BIG PLAYER”. For example, when the part of the team is humbly playing low stakes, some drunken and wealthy fish makes high bets on the given signals.

Ken Uston joined Al Francesco‘s team for several years with some degree of success, but his self-actualization needs did stand it under the pressure of his own egoistic personality. He had a very high opinion of himself. He was an action man, liked to show off and wanted to be the first in everything. He left Al Francesco and wrote several books about his gambling adventures. As expected of any high profile project, the books send shock waves through the gambling industry.

Meanwhile, Al Francesco and his cohorts were dissatisfied with Ken Uston‘s decisions to publish the methods of the game which were then available only to the inner circle. But Ken Uston would not be himself if he had not done it.

The casinos knew that well-financed team of blackjack professionals can cause great hurt to casinos. The casinos improvised counter-measures and introduced multi-decked games, frequent shuffling procedures and removal of several good rules. In addition, the casinos appointed special detective agencies to spy on the blackjack professionals, collect the necessary information about them and distribute it among the casinos.

Ken Uston created new methods of the game, used make-up to disguise players, recruited more and more people into his teams and started playing abroad. He was also involved in writing new books, starring on TV, writing new articles and developing new card counting systems.

One of the most scandalous Ken Uston‘s projects was creating the team against the casino with the aid of computers. He got his supply of computers from another Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee Keith Taft. They hid microchips on the body and in the shoes. These microchips can calculate the current situation in the game more precisely than any other human strategy and send the necessary signals to the player. His teams almost broke several casinos, but in a while they were caught, arrested and accused of fraud. The computers and microchips were confiscated. However, the experts including FBI experts, proved that there was no fraud and the accusations were withdrawn.

In 1970, Keith Taft created his first blackjack computer. He was an engineer, computer specialist and inventor. The computers were made available for use by Ken Uston‘s teams.

At that time, the only computers available were IBM mainframes. Miniaturization of computers were unheard off. Keith Taft invented the first version that used 16bite processor, manually made memory and manually wired-in program. Assembly work and debugging took two years. He protected his device with copper screen from possible clutters and hid it in his boots. At first he was very lucky, but then he lost a great deal. He decided to give up playing alone. Keith Taft thought of writing a book, but then contracts with blackjack professionals came his way.

After a few years the market offered more powerful computing devices. The basis of the other device was Z80 processor. Keith Taft built it in the pocket calculator. Keith Taft together with his brother made several such computers for his team. They doubled their bankroll in a week. Tripled in two weeks. Then they were caught, the money and the computer were confiscated.

In short, the secretive project broke down. And a new one emerged with more sophisticated and secret devices. More complicated computers required new processors and larger memory. New investments from the players and investors made good money for Keith Taft and his team of blackjack professionals. Moreover, this computer remained unnoticed in the casinos. Keith Taft created protection system which is quite similar to the modern “electronic key”.

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Soon video cameras emerged. Keith Taft started applying radio signals and even satellite. Then again a failure, arrest and accusation of fraud. Charges were again dismissed. A new hi-tech project followed.

The struggle between the use of technologies by blackjack professionals and the casinos continue until the issue was finally settled by the Supreme Court of USA. The court held that the use of computers was illegal in the United States.

Since then, Keith Taft stopped playing blackjack. At present, he is living in his house and is working in his laboratory.

Fortunately, Keith Taft‘s contribution to professional blackjack was recognized in the Blackjack Hall of Fame. The 2004 Blackjack Ball displayed Keith Taft‘s work which included a photo album featuring a variety of gadgets that he invented. Many blackjack professionals including Ken Uston used these gadgets to beat the casino. However, Keith Taft credits his teenager son, Marty, for the success of the team.

In terms of organized blackjack team play, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT Blackjack Team demonstrated themselves as an exceptional innovation of historical significance. Instead of hiring people with money, the operators of the team trained the students to play blackjack for summer earnings during their vacation.

At first the team was small, however the management drew great funds from outside investors and the project grew very large. These young students lived a double life. They attend lectures and eat in the campus canteen for five days a week, then fly to Las Vegas, betting on 10 thousand dollars in the box, living in luxury apartments and driving in limousines at the expense of casinos.

This is possibly the most highly qualified team in the history of blackjack team play. In a few years they have won about 10 million dollars. Then everything went topsy-turvy. First, the risk on the casino’s side increased. There was spying on the players, soon it was found out that they were students of MIT and then their names were added to the blacklist all over the country. Besides, the casinos were more aware of team game principles and each big player immediately came under scrutiny.

But the worse had arrived. A traitor appeared in the MIT blackjack team. For “the thirty pieces of silver”, one of the players betrayed all the members of the team to the casino security agency. Furthermore, part of the money was stolen. It resulted in the collapse of the team. Though it revived in somewhat different forms, they were not as successful as before.

On the brighter side, the former founders, pioneers and managers of the MIT blackjack team are really successful people at present. For example, Semyon Dukach is in sales and purchase of Internet companies. He also conducts seminars on blackjack. Andy Bloch became a professional poker player.

Despite its advantages, blackplay team play also has its share of disadvantages. The problems are mainly administrative in nature. It requires massive investments into the risky business. It is not surprising that 99% of the blackjack team play end up as financial disaster.

Blackjack Team Play

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The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part 3

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The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part 3

Mathematical developments by the game pioneers in professional blackjack and the creation of simple and efficient card counting systems fuelled the rise of blackjack experts and blackjack professionals.

Lawrence Revere invented a new simple card counting system and first described the method of reducing the current score to the real one. Stanford Wong amplified and improved Hi-Lo system, and also developed the Halves system. Lance Humble, Brison, Gordon, Harvey Dubner are equally famous as blackjack pioneers and they made significant contributions to the development of the methods of the game.

In late 70s, one of the blackjack professionals Al Francesco, probably created the first blackjack team in history. He hired the enthusiasts, taught them Lawrence Revere‘s card counting system and sent them to play. He invented and put into practice the principle of “BIG PLAYER”. For example, when the part of the team is humbly playing low stakes, some drunken and wealthy fish makes high bets on the given signals.

Ken Uston also belonged to this team. He was the vice president of fund stock exchange at that time. However after meeting Lawrence Revere and Al Francesco, he quitted the stock exchange and changed his strict outfit for magnificent bush of hair, golden chains and silk shirts with huge collars contemporaneous with the style of that time.

Ken Uston joined for Al Francesco‘s team for quite a long time and with some degree of success, but his ego did stand it under the pressure of his own ego. He had a very high opinion of himself and wanted to be the first in everything. He left Al Francesco and wrote several books about his gambling adventures. The books send shock waves through the gambling world.

One of the books “BIG PLAYER” revealed the secrets of team game. Another of his books “Million Dollar Blackjack” is stuffed with unbelievable stories which include explanation of the technical aspects of the game as well as presentation of different card counting systems. Ken Uston made people believe that one can beat the casino playing blackjack. One can win a lot, win millions of dollars. He also exposed to the public how casinos react to the blackjack professionals. These casino reactions include slams, insinuations, blacklists, crooked gambling, false accusations, cheating, fraudulent collaborations and altering the odds of the games. Ken Uston was in the blacklists all over the world, having won with his several teams about 8 million dollars.

Meanwhile, Al Francesco and his cohorts are still dissatisfied with Ken Uston‘s decisions to publish the methods of the game which were then available only to the inner circle. But Ken Uston would not be himself if he had not done it.

The next outburst of his popularity was in early 80s, when Ken Uston won the case against the Resorts International Hotel Casino in New Jersey. Since then no casino of New Jersey can refuse play to players who knows card counting. On the other hand, this verdict made the blackjack rules in New Jersey much worse than in Las Vegas because the casinos in New Jersey have to protect themselves against the onslaught of blackjack professionals.
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The next wave of the struggle between the casinos and the card counters occurred during Ken Uston’s era. The casinos understood, that well-financed team of blackjack professionals can cause great hurt to casinos. The casinos improvised counter-measures and introduced multi-decked games, frequent shuffling procedures and removal of several good rules. In addition, the casinos appointed special detective agencies to spy on the blackjack professionals, collect the necessary information about them and distribute it among the casinos.

Ken Uston created new methods of the game, used make-up, recruited more and more people into his teams and started playing abroad. He was also involved in writing new books, starring on TV, writing new articles and developing new card counting systems.

One of the most scandalous Ken Uston‘s projects was creating the team against the casino with the aid of computers. They hid microchips on the body and in the shoes. These microchips can calculate the current situation in the game more precisely than any other human strategy and send the necessary signals to the player. His teams almost broke several casinos, but in a while they were caught, arrested and accused of fraud. The computers and microchips were confiscated. However, the experts including FBI experts, proved that there was no fraud and the accusations were withdrawn. Unfortunately, two weeks after this fraudulent accusation, the Supreme Court of the USA of Nevada State held that the usage of computing devices in casinos is illegal.

On the other side of life, Ken Uston was a good guy, head of corporation, top-notch jazz musician and much adored by women and press. He had great plans on making a film, writing new books, arranging one more trial, and certainly new projects on professional blackjack. Unexpectedly, his life was suddenly interrupted on the morning of September 19, 1987. Ken Uston, age 52, was found dead in his rented apartment in Paris, France. His official cause of death was listed as heart failure. There was another version that casinos are privy to his death but this would never be verified or proven.

The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part 1

The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part 2

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The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part2

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The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part2

The 1962 publication of “Beat the Dealer” by Edward O Thorp was a landmark in the development of professional blackjack in the casino industry. We are now living in the 50th year of Thorp’s era and the blackjack that we see today is the development over these five decades. This person had such a great influence on professional blackjack and it was not surprising that he was the original inductee of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

Being a young scientist, Edward O. Thorp had a flare for mathematics and regularly keep himself up to date with mathematic journals. When he was a student, he was pressed for money. The idea of relying on mathematics to out-play the casino appealed to Thorp. He decided to evaluate the work of the “Four Horsemen of Aberdeen” and see what results will come out of it. The outcome of this research was a phenomenal book “Beat The Dealer“.

Instead of using the traditional analytical calculations, Edward O Thorp preferred to use the powerful mainframe IBM computer. He wrote several programs on Fortran. Incidentally, Claude Elwood Shannon, a great scientist, was also a research instructor of Edward O Thorp. Both of them were also involved in solving the problem “how to out-play the roulette?”

From his calculations, Thorp understood that dead cards had a considerable impact on the gambler’s outcomes. His main idea was about memorizing the dead cards in a somewhat simplified way. When the remaining cards favour the player, bet higher. Conversely, when the remaining cards favour the dealer, bet lower. This system still remains the basis of all card counting methods in blackjack.

The card counting system introduced by Thorp, was rather complicated for actual casino play. It required intense concentration and abundance of mental arithmetic. However with proper training it was possible to play exactly as mentioned in the book.

Thorp’s book “Beat The Dealer” immediately became a success and a bestseller. Everyone understood that with quite simple actions you can get an advantage. Every reader dreamt of the path to wealth. Conversely, the casinos also knew the impact.

Panic overwhelmed all the Las Vegas casinos. And in 1962 after the release of Thorp’s book, “Beat The Dealer“, all Las Vegas Casinos without exception changed their rules, being afraid of the mass influx of “advantage players”. The quality of the rules worsened terribly and no card counting system could ever help card counters to win. However, the business outcome on the casino was unpredictable. The outcome turned out to be quite the reverse of what they expect. People stopped playing blackjack. And over a period of several months, all the casinos had to return to their former rules for their own survival.

In addition, there was another interesting impact caused by Thorp’s book. There was a sudden surge in popularity of blackjack even surpassing the favorite American craps. A lot of people, after reading the book considered themselves potential winners and rushed to the blackjack tables. However, most of them had a bad understanding of the mathematical principles of the game. They did not become winners. Therefore, the casinos not only got more clients but they are also losing clients.

It contains the same dynamic ingredient as viagra australia so work in precisely the same way. If the infrastructure is not up to the mark, then there is no pfizer viagra 100mg point in opting for that institute. However, viagra online from india remains first choice for men who don’t want to observation utterly foolish). Men have Lack of Sexual Desire https://www.supplementprofessors.com/viagra-8105.html viagra samples canada The act of failing to have the sexual desire is one of the symptoms of impotence. The system presented in the first edition of Thorp’s book was quite difficult even for blackjack professionals and only a few could apply it under the normal playing conditions of a real casino game. The approach to professional blackjack should be simplified.

Julian Braun seems to be the power behind the simplification in the development of professional blackjack. He had hardly ever played a deal in real blackjack. However, he played millions and may be even billions of deals on the computer. Julian Braun was a good mathematician and programmer and he got interested in Thorp’s idea and offered him co-operation in the sphere of calculations and programming.

Julian Braun became the person who first invented the card counting system Hi-Lo. He was behind the development of all modern card counting systems even though the authorship of which belongs to Revere, Humble, Wong and Uston. He wrote the only book “How to Play Winning Blackjack”. Unfortunately it was not a great book.

Julian Braun upgraded Thorp’s system on FORTRAN and made considerable changes. The second edition of Thorp’s book also contained Hi-Lo system in its modern form. It was quite a revolution in the gambling world. Julian Braun worked in IBM corporation and had access to probably the most powerful computers in the world. This fact helped to build simple yet efficient tool in the struggle between blackjack professionals and casino owners.

Using Julian Braun‘s calculations, one of the blackjack professionals known as Lawrence Revere developed his own card counting system and presented his results in the form of tables. Most blackjack card counters throughout the world find these tables effective and efficient and had successfully used them under casino environment. Lance Humble based his Hi-Opt systems also on Julian Braun‘s experience.

Although Julian Braun might not have played blackjack in the casino, he was recognized as a mathematical power behind the development of professional blackjack as well as the evolution of blackjack professionals.

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Beat the Dealer

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The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part1

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The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part1

The dream of beating a casino is as old as the notion “casino” itself. Every gambler wants to win. Every other invents his own “system”. Every hundredth attempts to research the game in great detail. And only a few out of millions succeed.

The most notable achievement in the subject of betting “system” against the casino was the so called “card counting” in blackjack. Card counting is a mathematically based method to enable players to get some advantage over the casino. The casinos certainly are aware of the existence of “card counters” and are trying to implement counter-measures against them. This involves changing the rules, including the introduction of multi-deck shoes and continuous shuffling machines. Sometimes, the casino would ban the card counters if they are seen as a threat to their bottom line. In many cases, the casinos even went overboard in implementing their counter-measures. Historically, blackjack reveals an interesting struggle between the blackjack professionals and the casinos. As to be expected, the casinos have to be smarter because he who makes the rules get the gold.

More than half a century has passed since the discovery that blackjack is beatable, not based on the marked cards and intuition but legitimately based on card counting. The struggle has been fierce and intense, but the war is still going on.

Probably the first person in history who used mathematic to analyze blackjack was Jess Marcum alias Marcovitch. He was born on 30th December 1919.

It happened at the turn of 1949 and 1950, when Jess Marcum, being an expert in mathematic and physic got to Las Vegas. Over there, his mathematic acumen prompted him that most possibly not everything depends on intuition in blackjack.

Jess Marcum started researching blackjack. Firstly, the unusual nature of his research is that he performed absolutely all calculations just using pen and paper. During that time technologies were limited and not readily available. Secondly, his pen and paper research was sufficient for him to find a way to win in blackjack.

Jess Marcum manually developed what is now called basic strategy for card counters ten years ahead of his peers. He counted that theoretically he had an advantage over the casino of about 3%. Under the conditions of that time it was quite real. Moreover, Markum had been playing blackjack in all casinos known to him both in the United States and abroad. His name appeared on the pages of the newspapers as an example of “lucky man” who managed to hit the jackpot.

Jess Markum also went down in history as probably the first man thrown out from the casino because of card counting. At that time the casinos did not understand that such winning system existed. Jess Markum lived in Las Vegas for about a year. The casino owners exchanged the information when they gathered at the general meeting. And they were shocked. After that Jess Markum was barred from play at all Las Vegas casinos. He went to Reno. The same story went on. In half a year after unbelievable “luck” the casino owners started making inquiries about the incredible gambler. Then other states and cities followed. Then Cuba and even the Bahamas. Nobody knows how much money he has won during that time. One thing is known for sure. Jess Markum started the struggle between the blackjack professionals and casino owners, a war that is still going on and getting more intense.

Typical of professional gamblers including blackjack professionals, Jess Markum remained secretive throughout his gambling career. He did not share his calculations with anyone, and completely gave up playing against casinos after a wide public publication of blackjack methods by other authors.
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Jess Markum died in 1992, at the age of 72.

The next wave of great impact on the blackjack mathematics was made in 1956 by a group of four mathematicians, Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Eddie Cantey, Herbert Maisel and James McDermott. They were also known as “Four Horsemen of Aberdeen“. You have seen from my post Blackjack Hall of Fame that these four were 2008 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductees.

These Four Horsemen of Aberdeen had never played in casino before. However, they researched blackjack according to the most common rules during that time. They created basic strategy of playing blackjack and published it together with the calculation methods in the specialized mathematics journal for statisticians – Journal of the American Statistical Association entitled “The Optimum Strategy In Blackjack”.

They made several minor mistakes in calculations which is nothing serious taking into account their enormous contribution. A year later in 1957, they published a small book, “Playing Blackjack to Win: A New Strategy for the Game of 21”.

Unfortunately, their book and the article did not spark much interest, and remained at low profile in spite of their innovative approach. However, the research of the Four Horsemen of Aberdeen turned out to be one of the most widely used references in subsequent years.

In recognition of their work, the Four Horsemen of Aberdeen were collectively inducted in the 2008 Blackjack Hall of Fame.

Continue The Rise of Blackjack Professionals Part 2

Blackjack Professionals

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Blackjack Hall of Fame Part 2

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Blackjack Hall of Fame Part 2

2006 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee was James Grosjean. He authored “Beyond Counting” which focused on the dealer’s hole cards. Although every tactic used by James Grosjean was legal at the time, he was insulted and arrested for his practices. In retaliation, he sued Caesars Casino, Imperial Palace and Griffin Detective Agency for wrongful arrest. James Grosjean won the case forcing Griffin Detective Agency into bankruptcy. This landmark case protect the honour of professional gamblers from defamation by the casino management.

In his book “Beyond Counting”, James Grosjean explores the games in great detail to discover new ways to exploit the hidden advantage that few can see. He is one of the few blackjack professionals who has the skills to point out further advantages beyond card counting. These mathematical advantages turn the edge in favour of the players. After reading this book, you become the casino, while the casino become the player. In other words, you are playing with a small edge and at the same time the casino has to foot all the costs associated with running a casino. Unfortunately, this much sought after book is not available at your local bookstores because it is not available to the public. You must know James Grosjean or be recommended by someone in his inner circle before you can get hold of the book.

The 2007 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee was John Chang. John Chang was the former manager of the MIT Blackjack Team. The Mickey Rosa character in the movie 21 was inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team.

Movie 21 is a 2008 American heist drama film based on the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team as told in Bringing Down the House, the best-selling book by Ben Mezrich. Movie 21 is directed by Robert Luketic. The stars are Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, and Aaron Yoo. Despite some criticism over the the selection of the cast, movie 21 was a number one box office hit in the United States and Canada during its first and second weekends of release.

2008 saw four inductees. Roger Baldwin, Wilbert Eddie Cantey, Herbert Maisel and James McDermott were collectively inducted. They were also known as “The Four Horsemen of Aberdeen”. Roger Baldwin was the mastermind. While serving in the U.S. Army in the fifties, they discovered and published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association the first accurate basic strategy for Blackjack, using only desk calculators. The publication is known as “Mathematician Co-Authored Guide to Winning at Blackjack”.

Wilbert Eddie Cantey was a hardworking Army sergeant and mathematician at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland’s Harford County in the 1950s. He loved mathematical challenge. So when a private in his analytical office gave him a mathematical quiz, he accepted the challenge.

Wilbert Eddie Cantey joined Roger Baldwin, James McDermott and Herbert Maisel to figure out the best way to beat the Las Vegas casinos in blackjack. They spent thousands of hours burning the midnight oil for more than one and a half year. They researched the blackjack game using desk calculators and probability law to find a statistically winning strategy.

From their research, the mathematicians wrote a 1956 article for the Journal of the American Statistical Association, “The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack,” and in 1957 published a small book, “Playing Blackjack to Win: A New Strategy for the Game of 21,” which became one of the most widely used references.

We were going to be young rich people,” recalled Herbert Maisel, who went on to teach at Georgetown University and who remained close friends with Wilbert Eddie Cantey. “We worked out the best way to play the game. Unfortunately, we figured out we would lose in the long run.”

The colleagues, who came to be known in the gambling world as the Four Horsemen of Aberdeen, never tried to beat casino dealers to garner big bucks from gambling. But they were rewarded this year in Las Vegas for their contributions to the game.

“It was an honour, in so many ways, to be able to use mathematics to figure out the game of blackjack,” Cantey told the Las Vegas Sun, after he and his friends were inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

Cantey died at the age of 77 from complications of pancreatic cancer at Genesis Layhill Center in Silver Spring.

2009 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee was Richard W. Munchkin.
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In “Gambling Wizards”, Richard W. Munchkin explored the minds of eight masters of the game. He interviewed them in-depth to learn how they think, how they play, and what made them successful. The interview subjects include: Billy Walters (sports betting), Chip Reese (poker), Doyle Brunson (poker), Mike Svobodny (backgammon), Stan Tomchin (backgammon and sports betting), Cathy Hulbert (blackjack and poker), Alan Woods (blackjack and horse racing), and Tommy Hyland (blackjack).

Richard W. Munchkin lives in Santa Clarita, California, with his wife Nelia and sons Nicholas and Alexander.

2010 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee was Darryl Purpose. He was a former professional advantage player and a performing songwriter.

This famous gambler and musician did a benefit concert for a carousel at a planetarium. Besides his love for music, Darryl Purpose also believe in contributing for a good cause. As a Nederland resident and friend of Carousel of Happiness, he is pleased to support a good cause by offering music.

2011 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee was Zeljko Ranogajec, a professional gambler from Australia, and a former blackjack professional player. Ranogajec won by two votes ahead of new nominee Bob Nersesian. Other nominees included Bill Erb, Ian Andersen, Don Schlesinger, Allan Wilson, and Jess Marcum.

Zeljko Ranogajec was one of the most prolific and innovative advantage players of all time. Starting with a few hundred dollars decades ago, his feats of winning hundreds of millions dollars in blackjack (and in other gambling ventures) have been written about in numerous publications, and he is now known as “the world’s biggest punter.”

2012 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee was Ian Anderson.

In the mid-1970s, Ian Andersen wrote “Turning the Tables on Las Vegas”, the classic book on casino comportment. With regard to card counting, this book is out of date as you can easily find better books today. This is the first book that teaches you how not to get barred as a card counter. Indeed, this book offers enough tips to show you how to look more like a regular gambler. Anyone who count cards to win in blackjack should read this book.

As the first book to address the meticulous details of how to get away with winning in blackjack by card counting, “Turning the Tables on Las Vegas” was the book that converts recreational winners into blackjack careers. After its publication, however, Andersen disappeared from the scene to produce a sequel “Burning the Tables in Las Vegas–Keys to Success in Blackjack and in Life”.

Since 1976, Ian Andersen has been developing his personal approach for success in blackjack, poker, and other of life’s games. His strategy combines elements of mathematics, psychology, mental and physical well-being to create a brand new approach to winning.

“Burning the Tables in Las Vegas” addresses virtually every aspect of blackjack advantage play: game selection, table selection, casino selection, tipping, guises, disguises, false identification, credit, comps, risk, heat, employee relations, dress, demeanour, diet and longevity. Ian Andersen also explains that not only emotions, in particular guilt and anger, but also skills, such as discipline and interpersonal competence, can affect your potential for profit.

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Blackjack Hall of Fame

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Blackjack Hall of Fame Part 1

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Blackjack Hall of Fame Part 1

The Blackjack Hall of Fame is located at the Barona Casino, in San Diego, California. The Barona Casino awards to each inductee a permanent lifetime rewards for full room, food, and beverage, in exchange for each member’s agreement never to play on Barona’s tables.

The Blackjack Hall of Fame was formed in 2003. Until 2005, it has inducted a total of 11 members for their outstanding contributions, both at the tables and beyond.

Edward O. Thorp, one of the original Blackjack Hall of Fame members, was a mathematician and scholar, known as the Father of Card Counting by professional players and the public at large. In 1962, he authored the book “Beat the Dealer”, which was the very first winning blackjack system ever published. In this book, his Ten Count system was first introduced to the world. It was also the first publication to beat any casino-style gambling game mathematically. Every card counting system available today is a derivative of Edward O. Thorp Ten Count system.

Ken Uston, an original inductee, passed away in 1987, long before the inception of Blackjack Hall of Fame. Ken Uston was the author of the book “The Big Player”. This book brought the secrets of the big card counting teams mainstream, creating an uproar throughout the casino industry. After his landmark publication, card counting teams began to spread across the globe.

Al Francesco, another member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame was the inventor of blackjack team play. Al Francesca was the driving force and the mastermind behind Ken Uston and his book, “The Big Player”.

Peter Griffin was the first to introduce card counting system into two points in his book, “The Theory of Blackjack”. These two points are the Betting Correlation (BC) and the Playing Efficiency (PE). Blackjack researchers have been using the mathematical methods of this book, along with his many other mathematical papers. This made Peter Griffin an easy pick for the original Blackjack Hall of Fame line-up.

Stanford Wong, often referred to as the “Godfather of Blackjack”, was an original inductee into the Blackjack Hall of Fame. The term “wonging” is related to his proven techniques of card counting across the globe. Stanford Wong was one of the first to beat the continuous shuffle machines of Las Vegas before they were removed and updated.

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Tommy Hyland started playing professional blackjack while still in college, and till now has been for over 31 years. He is the leading man in the longest running and most successful blackjack team in the entire world. Admired by his peers and hated by casino owners, Tommy Hyland has made his mark in the blackjack world and was an original inductee into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

2004 Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee was Keith Taft. The Blackjack Ball also displayed a complete set of photo album featuring a variety of gadgets that Keith Taft invented to facilitate the process of beating the casino games. Keith Taft give credit his son, Marty for making it possible for the father and son to be unbeatable pair since Marty was a teenager.

Max Rubin is the second Blackjack Hall of Fame’s inductee for 2004. Max Rubin is the author of “Comp City”, a publication crafted to beat the Blackjack tables of Las Vegas without having to master the art of counting cards.

The 2005 Blackjack Hall of Fame brought with it two new inductees Julian Brown and Lawrence Revere. Julian Brown was an IBM computer programmer who was fascinated by the mathematics involved in blackjack. In the 1960’s Julina Brown wrote to Edward O. Thorp and requested a copy of the blackjack computer program. Since Julian Brown had access to some of the fastest computers available, he researched diligently to develop a better program. He contributed significantly to the improved version of Hi-Opt blackjack and Hi-Lo strategies. Most of the work of the present day blackjack experts are derived from the work of Julian Brown.

Lawrence Revere was a card shark and hustler. He created a series of amazingly simple, colour coded charts. In other words, he made it so easy for anyone to understand. Lawrence Revere is considered to be the man who brought blackjack to the average player.

Continue Blackjack Hall of Fame Part 2.

Blackjack Hall of Fame

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