Markanthony18@hotmail.com

The first person credited to ever wear a computer, was Claude Shannon and Ed Thorp, and it was to beat Roulette. As you may know Ed Thorp was the Author of ‘Beat The Dealer’. Claude Shannon, a brilliant scientist and mathematician made the perfect other half of a team ready to take money from the casinos, battling their wits against the infallible and limitless banks of the casinos. I pay my regards to Claude Shannon who actually died recently. Their task seemed the perfect dream, to take money from the casinos on a regular basis, tax free, and to do what ever they liked with the money after, fast cars, holidays, the perfect home. At the time in the late sixties, computers were analogue, not digital, so their task was rather daunting, the device not been flexible enough to cope with the different parameters that could change the outcome of the game. Ed had already made a fortune card counting for a living, and was barred from every casino that recognized him consequently.

Later on in the late 1970’s another team emerged, this time a group of collage kids, all studying for degrees in subjects like, physics, mathematics, computers, communications etc. They spent years researching, studying roulette. Trying different mathematical formulas to fit in to the observed spinning of the ball, how it decelerated, how far it travelled, and then to couple this with the deceleration of the rotor, so they could predict where the ball would hit the rotor, and hence the number! They found the basic mathematics to give an edge of around 24%. All they needed to do was to be able to calculate fast enough from timings of the ball and rotor, and then lay a bet on in the 15-25 seconds it takes the ball to land in its pocket. For this they would use a computer. How would they be able to get a computer small enough into the casino, could they use transmitters, a new task lay ahead of them. They built their own computer, stuffed it into some platform shoes, with solenoids that would tap the sector the ball was predicted to go in on the rotor. They actually lacked a complex enough machine that could manipulate parameters quick enough in the casino, so it only worked some of the time, other hardware was to let them down, paranoia set in, they decided to give up eventually, and get into normal jobs. Although some of them went on to do great things, like postulating Chaos Theory-which can predict order from chaos, like the prediction of the weather. Another went on to set up a Stock Market company, which was quite successful. The best success in my mind was the unique and exciting writing skills of one of the group called Thomas A Bass. He wrote a book called Newtonian Casino (Puffin books), an international best seller at the time. Check this book out, it’s well worth the read on this subject, technically perfect and full of humour!

I set out to do my bit; ignorant of the fact that anyone else had done what I set out to do. I suppose I was a little arrogant as well in this assumption! Well I purchased a Roulette Wheel £3500+V.A.T, a fast shutter speed camcorder + lighting, a PC workstation, and a Psion palmtop computer. I was not that good at programming, but knew someone who was, he taught me all I needed to know in three months, in this time I was already taking timings of the ball and rotor, trying to work out on paper, how it could be beat. One of the books I got, which turned out to be a kind help, was Computational Numerical Analysis (Harper Collins). I was already good at maths, exceptionally good, but lacked the programming skills to convert it to running programs. In this book there was some maths developed by NASA for calculating the least square fit polynomials to data and also polynomial solving mathematical programs. It gave me an insight into the mathematical programmable layout. I had something that worked quite well, but now and then it seemed to go out, like drifting away from the actual number it would hit on the rotor. It took me 5 weeks to work out that air pressure and temperature was affecting the outcome. I sorted this out after a weeks work, but they still seemed to be problems. I had studied that most wheels were tilted in the casino by watching were the ball came down on the banking (Balls seem to come down on the highest part of the banking). And I knew from my data and my personal manipulation of my own wheel that the 2nd order polynomial seemed to behave erratically. I decided to take timings from a digital timer and temperature gauge and video the event. I took timings from two different points; it was then I found that the 2nd order polynomial had a sinual overtone with varying amplitude depending on the degree of tilt. I worked out the mathematical polynomial that would be able to solve this, and the data needed to do it, this perfected my system so that I could get 1 in 18 all day long. Even my Nephew who is 12 years old could use it. All I needed to do was implement it in the casino. I found that the computer could have the auto switch off disabled when it was closed. It also has a real time application chip in it called a free running clock FRC and a dedicated speech-recording chip. This small pocket sized computer was the perfect companion for computer roulette. I managed to obtain a pea sized induction loop receiver that could directly receive signals from the computer. The signal I receive is my own voice, telling me when to bet, when to set equations. It’s a perfect system. It has never lost to date in two years and I have made over 4.5 million dollars. Its not really for sale as yet, I have no reason to sell it at present, I don’t think that even showing someone that it works, they would offer me what its really worth, I am interested however in others who have done this, so that I can share methodologies etc. I am giving up gambling though, as a scientist, already wealthy in my own right, financially secure and content, I have made enough using my system, and from intellectual property that I receive royalties from with regards to ideas I own patents on.

You can try this site to view one of the teams from the early eighties (1985), don’t be put off by the oversized computer hardware, things have come a long way on since then with technology!

To show you it can be done, just try this site, I have several more addresses, but not advertised as such for obvious reasons. http://nowscape.com/blk/roul/index.html
Address of computer buffs who did it in 1985
Curve graphs similar to others and mine!
Although technology has come along way since then!!!
But these guys know their stuff, excellent results!

Legal Aspects

It is illegal in the state of Nevada to use a computer ($10.000) dollar fine and up to ten years imprisonment. But you have the rest of the world to do it in! It is not illegal anywhere else as far as I know!

Commonsense

Most casinos would not take to kindly to you taking money out of the casinos, so discretion in choosing the right casino is a must, a decent large establishment is a must, no back street casinos owned by criminals, it could get nasty their, the common trick is to send a group out to mug you of your winnings, so be careful. I don’t want to frighten you though, this is a rarity and I have never even been suspected in over two years of play, its impossible to get caught with equipment that I supply.

Any further questions, contact me at:

Markanthony18@hotmail.com