The "start your own conspiracy theory" thread

NuclearNed

Raconteur
May 18, 2001
7,857
345
126
We've all heard the stories about the MIT kids who "broke" the casinos for large sums of money. Every time I'm in Vegas, I play a lot of blackjack and someone at the table inevitably brings up the topic. It seems like everyone in Vegas is aware of the story, and has gotten the notion that it is possible to use card counting to win at the tables. A lot of people try, yet I haven't met anyone who has actually succeeded.

According to the blackjack section over at Wizard of Odds, card counting doesn't allow a player to gain much of an advantage over the casinos.

To be a successful counter you have to be able to count down a deck fast and memorize large tables of numbers as well as make it look like you're just a casual player. Furthermore, with today's rules, a realistic advantage the counter will have is only 0.5% to 1.5%. You will not win money slowly and gradually but your bankroll will go up and down like a roller coaster in the short run. Only in the long run, over hundreds of hours of playing, can you count on winning.

So I got to thinking:
1. I have never read or heard of anyone who actually knows anybody who has used card counting to make their fortunes.
2. I have never read or heard of anyone who has been ejected from a casino for card counting.
3. It seems that blackjack has become a really popular game in the last few years, particularly since the MIT story was publicized.

So I thought a little further:
What if the MIT story was at some level a deception? If suddenly the public had been led to believe that there is a beatable casino game (contrary to reality), who would be in a position to make a huge profit? The answer is simple: the casinos.

So thats my conspiracy theory. The casinos created the whole MIT story, and they've been raking in the bucks ever since.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
166
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www.slatebrookfarm.com
Hmmm, I've never heard those urban legends of MIT students breaking the casinos. Heyyyyyy, I know what this is. The mods tapped you to try to bring all of the conspiracy nuts out of the closet. They're going to give the people with conspiracy theories a vacation! In exchange for helping them out, they're also going to grant you Elite status. Oh noooo! I'm getting the heck out of this thread.
 

pravi333

Senior member
May 25, 2005
577
0
0
i've read that book, its called "Bringing down the house" about the MITians, it came couple off years back.
 

thehstrybean

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 2004
5,727
1
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What? Everything is the truth. That's why Wikipedia is teh intraweb bible!! Conspiracy theories? My theory is that mods and the president (same thing, W is a mod) created conspiracy theories so we would doubt the story that which is actually the truth...
 

DaShen

Lifer
Dec 1, 2000
10,710
1
0
It works, but you have to do it in groups. Of course card counting works, but it won't work if you are the only person playing.

The way it works is a low better plays a BlackJack table and counts the cards. He counts all royals and tens, and also the Aces in the deck. If the deck ever has a large group of Aces and cards that equal tens (higher chance of Blackjack), he/she signals another player to join the table and started betting big. The better you are at card counting, and the more places you do it, the higher chances you will beat the odds.

There is your explanation.

**EDIT**
If you do it by yourself, (Your bets triple when the odds are in your favor) it is easy for the casino to catch and you will get subsequently banned.
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
25,655
4,172
126
Blistex, Carmex, and other lip moisturizers are addicting. They fool you into thinking your lips are dry. So you put on their product. Their product then stops your body from making the natural lip moisturizers. That way you actually need their product. So you put more of it on. Then your body doesn't produce the natural moisturizers. The whole process repeats.

They create the need for an unending use of their product for the suckers who started using it.
 

lokiju

Lifer
May 29, 2003
18,526
5
0
There was a show in Discovery or one of those with a person that's been banned from most major casinos for card counting and they did some on the show test with him that showed his ability to do so.

Seems like some validity to it if multiple casinos have banned him for the same thing.

Don't recall what the show was called though :(